With the coronavirus (COVID-19) taking over the news and many people’s daily lives, I thought it would be worth taking a look at this from the Gentleman Spy perspective. How do, and how should, you respond to a pandemic?

First, if you or your loved ones are personally affected by COVID-19, you have my prayers and condolences. If you are a healthcare worker or first responder working in affected areas, thank you, and stay safe.

In the last 25 years, we have had at least seven major global health crises:

  • 1996: Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; commonly known as mad cow disease)
  • 2003: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
  • 2004: Avian influenza (H5N1)
  • 2009: Pandemic H1N1/09 influenza
  • 2014: Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa
  • 2015: Zika virus outbreak
  • 2019-2020: Wuhan coronavirus outbreak

None of these were the end of the world long-term pandemics that many feared and COVID-19 won’t be either.

But that does not mean you shouldn’t take this seriously, especially those with increased risk factors like healthcare workers, first responders, and those with regular contact with the elderly or infirm.

With that in mind, here are my recommendations:

1. Don’t panic.

It’s arguable that most of the problems we’re seeing on a large scale are less about the people who are sick and more about the idiots who are out there panic-buying, starting fights, etc. Don’t be that guy.

You don’t need 96 rolls of toilet paper or 27 cases of bottled water, and those panic-buying are creating real shortages for those who do need supplies.   You should be prepared, but panicking and panic-buying hurts everybody.

2. Self-quarantine as much as possible.

Whether or not there’s a mandated quarantine in your area, do your best to limit your exposure.

You’re probably young and healthy and likely thinking you’ll be just fine if you go out. But this is not just about protecting yourself. By limiting your exposure, you’re protecting those more at risk than you are. Be particularly careful around the elderly and immunocompromised.

Work from home. If your job hasn’t already mandated a work-from-home policy, now is a great time to bring it up. If you’re the boss or owner, find out what you can do to let your employees work from home.

Bonus: Assuming your working remotely goes well, this may help you arrange flexible hours or the ability to work from home long after the COVID-19 scare goes away.

This is a great time to focus on yourself, [re-]connect with family or friends, read that book you’ve been putting off, learn something new at home, even binge-watch your favorite shows without feeling guilty.

Don’t worry about what you can’t do. Be grateful for what you can do.

2.1. Do exercise at home and get outside.

Exercise has been shown to boost immunity, speed recovery, and improve your attitude. Get outside and go for a walk or a run. It’s getting warmer, so get some sun and get those vitamin-D levels up. As long as you do it intelligently, you can (read: should) get outside and stay active with no ill effects.

3. Wash your hands.

When you do go out, the best way to limit your exposure is to wash your hands. Properly.

Wash your hands before, during and after food preparation; before and after eating; before and after caring for the sick; after coughing, sneezing, blowing your nose; after using the restroom, etc.

If you have the option between washing your hands or using hand sanitizer, washing your hands properly is the superior option.

4. Help others.

Especially the elderly and those not as prepared to weather the storm as you are. If you have elderly or immunocompromised family members, go out and do their shopping for them.

Wash your hands and disinfect what you can before visiting or delivering supplies to them.

If you can donate your time or money to help people less fortunate than yourself, please do so.

Whether you’re an individual or business owner, this is also where opportunity lies. Countless millionaires are made in times of crisis as people find new or innovative ways to serve their communities.

Find a need that you can help fill.

5. Be prepared. Intelligently.

No, you don’t need industrial cases of TP, but if you’re not already prepared to go at least a few days (if not two weeks or more) without outside supplies, it’s time to start preparing for that. While supply chains will normalize in the future, this pandemic is just one of many disasters that create a disruption in services.

Whether it’s COVID-19 or the next pandemic, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. you should be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours and ideally 2 weeks or more.

While this is covered in depth in the Ready For Anything bonus of Gentleman Spy, the best option is to simply track what you normally use at at home and buy a bit more each time you go shopping until you have a 2-week to 3-month supply of food and supplies. Some foods like fresh produce might not keep well, but almost everything else can be frozen or is shelf-stable for weeks or months at a time. Rotate your stock so you use the oldest and restock as you go.

If your day-to-day involves eating most meals out, use this time to learn to cook your favorite meals at home. If you have medications or supplies that you always buy at the last minute, use this as the wake-up call to be more prepared.

6. Long-term preparedness.

If the quarantine or business shutdowns last for weeks or months or the company you work for goes out of business, how long can you maintain your current standard of living without working? Do you have two weeks of living expenses in savings? Two months? Two years?

Do you have a safety net to cover unexpected expenses like hospital stays, medical bills, or travel expenses if you had to evacuate?

If somebody you love got sick tonight, could you grab a bag to spend the night comfortably at the hospital, or would you be scrambling around looking for documents, clothes, toiletries, entertainment, etc?

Most people aren’t prepared for almost any of these eventualities, even though most of us will experience some or all of them throughout our lifetimes.

Almost all of the current panic and fear-mongering surrounding COVID-19 stems from how unprepared the vast majority of our society is for what are, over the course of our lives, almost certainties.

Pandemics happen.
Natural disasters happen.
Wars happen.
The economy goes up and down.
This is the cycle of life.

And as we’re seeing right now, the normal state for most people is to be completely unprepared for even the most basic events or interruptions in services.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.With a little bit of knowledge and some forethought, you can be almost completely insulated from the negative consequences of these events.

This is all covered in the Ready for Anything preparedness module of the Gentleman Spy program.

I want to make it as easy as possible for you to have access to it, which is why I’m expanding the usual new subscriber discount to everybody. If you’re reading this right now, you can get started preparing the right way for as little as $1 and up to 33% off the normal price.