The USMC has issued guidance for it's preparation to manage it's role in pandemic spread of COVID-19.
"REF I IS GLOBAL CAMPAIGN PLAN 3551, WHICH DIRECTS USNORTHCOM TO EXECUTE ITS PANDEMIC PLAN AND SUPPORTING GEOGRAPHIC COMBATANT COMMANDS TO EXECUTE THEIR PANDEMIC PLANS IN RESPONSE TO THE NCOV OUTBREAK."
I recommend that we all recognize the need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that the COVID-19 epidemic currently mostly confined to China is unable to be confined to that country. Most folks should realize that the timing of the outbreak caused the institution of quarantine in Wuhan to follow the holiday travel of many residents of that city, and it is probable that several millions of potentially infected people left before the quarantine began.
Various countries including the US are presently undertaking to treat outbreaks and prevent them from becoming epidemics in those countries, and the long period in which people are asymptomatic but contagious, up to 24 days, may already have resulted in wider transmission of COVID-19 than is presently known.
The lessons that can be learned from what has happened in China during their efforts to prevent spread of this disease include securing necessary supplies for a quarantine period of several weeks, if not months, under conditions in which securing more supplies will not be possible. Food, water, medicines and other essential supplies should be on hand prior to the announcement of such a quarantine IMHO.
Panic is useless, and hoarding harmful, but rational preparations including securing necessary supplies for the expected duration of a possible quarantine is advisable.
