Avian Flu Diary: NPM13: The Ethics Of Preparedness

Note: This is day 17 of National Preparedness Month. Follow this year’s campaign on Twitter by searching for the #NPM or #NPM13 hash tag.

This month, as part of NPM13, I’ll be rerunning some updated preparedness essays (like this one) , along with some new ones.

# 7781

Having spent most of my adult life as a prepper (see NPM13: The Making Of A Prepper), I admit I come away from viewing cable shows like Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic Channel and Doomsday Bunkers on the Discovery Channel with a certain uneasiness.

The vivid doomsday scenarios and over-the-top preparations may make for entertaining TV, but they are hardly representative of the mainstream preparedness movement.

When FEMA, Ready.gov, and the American Red Cross encourage us to prepare for emergencies, they aren’t asking us to dig a bunker, acquire an arsenal, or stockpile 20 years worth of freeze dried foods.

They are hoping for a more reasoned response (see NPM12: Everyday Preppers).

But even if we are talking about a week or two worth of emergency supplies, there are some who view the idea that preparing – when others with limited financial means cannot - is somehow unfair, or even unethical.

A noble and egalitarian sounding idea, I suppose.

But the reality is that when more people are prepared before a crisis, fewer people will be competing for finite and sometimes slow-to-arrive emergency assistance in the days following a disaster.

And when you as an individual, family, or business are prepared, you are in a better position to offer help to friends, neighbors, relatives, or your community.

Which makes prepping not only ethical, but extremely practical as well.

And it isn’t just me saying that.

In October, 2008 I wrote a blog which highlighted the John's Hopkins Study entitled Ethics and Severe Pandemic Influenza: Maintaining Essential Functions through a Fair and Considered Response.

It included the following snippet from the summary provided by the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

. . . individuals and families who can afford it should do their best to prepare for any disaster. The paper notes, the more initiative the general public exercises in stockpiling several weeks' worth of food, water, paper goods, batteries medicines, and other needed supplies, the less vulnerable they will be to a break in the supply chain.

It is important for leaders to communicate to the middle class and the wealthy that it is their responsibility to prepare for self-sufficiency in order to free up scarce supplies and allow first responders to direct their attention towards those too poor or vulnerable to prepare themselves.

While this may not have been the main thrust of this paper's message, it is a powerful component. One that bloggers such as myself have been trying to promote for several years.

As long as our supply chains are intact, grocery store shelves are full and capable of being restocked, and no major shortages exist it is not hoarding, selfish, or unethical to be stockpiling a reasonable amount of emergency supplies for you, your family, and others you might be able to assist during a disaster.

During a crisis, relief agencies will have their hands full trying to help those who were unable to prepare, or who lost their preps due to a disaster.

By being prepared in advance, you take some of that burden off these agencies, which will allow them to concentrate their efforts on helping those less able to help themselves.

And by being prepared, you are in a better position to help others as well.

And that’s a win-win situation. For you, your family, and your whole community.

While 72 hours is considered the minimum amount of time for which you and your family should be prepared, there is nothing that says you shouldn’t strive to do better than that.

A week or more of emergency supplies (along with an emergency NWS radio, first aid kit, and a family disaster plan) is a laudable, and easily obtainable, goal.

Over the past decade, personal and community preparedness has become a national goal, promoted by many agencies, including::