Survival Tips During Federal Government Shutdown

Reading Twitter today makes us feel like the civilization will come to an end tonight. It is sad and unfortunate, when these scientists and journalists behave like juveniles or resort to fear-mongering to advance their petty goals. However, in the unlikely situation that they are right and the civilization ends tonight, here are some basic survival tips to continue with life.

First question to ask - how long will the shutdown last? If it lasts longer than three minutes, make sure you have a secured source of air. No human being can survive longer than 3 minutes without oxygen. You can follow the rule of three to prepare for other extreme situations during a prolonged government shutdown.

To start, consider The Rule of Threes. A human can survive for:

- 3 minutes without air

- 3 hours without a regulated body temperature (shelter)

- 3 days without water

- 3 weeks without food

How to make yourself warm (>3 hours) or prepare food (>3 weeks) during government shutdown? Most likely you will have to start a self-feeding fire on your own. The following video guide is helpful, if you do not know how to.

We also searched online for guidelines for various important outbreaks and are posting the instructions below, in case CDC remains closed during the outbreak and you have no clue what to do.

Cholera:

Ensure a good water supply in terms of quality and quantity

Provision of latrines, systems for safe faecal disposal

Ensure adequate essential supplies are ordered and prepositioned in hot spot areas on time. E.g. soap, water containers, water purification equipment and chemicals, ORS, chorine

The entire list is available here.

Malaria

Get a mosquito net and stay inside until government opens again.

We will update this page with information on what to do for other disease outbreaks as soon as we find reliable information.

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Realistically, what will happen during a shutdown?

Answer - nothing.

1. Government will pass continuing resolution and maintain critical services.

2. Those government workers employed in non-critical services will get a nice vacation and full pay after a month, or whenever the shutdown ends.

Here is a good example:

Government employees need ‘funding’ even to send tweets. Hilarious !!

3. Francis Collins will get time to upload a new guitar video in youtube.

4. If the shutdown never ends, the ‘Land of the Free’ will truly be free again.