#18,957
One of the key messages of this blog over the past 18+ years has been the need to have - and to be - a `Flu' or `Disaster Buddy'. To prearrange with family, friends, or neighbors a mutual assistance agreement, where you would be there for them, and they for you, during an emergency.Time To Line Up A `Flu Buddy'
In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?
According to the 2020 census, a record breaking 36 million Americans live alone (see chart above), and while many of those are younger people who are waiting later to get married, a side effect of our longer lifespan and high divorce rate is that 40% of those single households are held by those over the age of 65.
The 2020 census also identified nearly 11 million single-parent households with minor children. Here, if the lone adult falls seriously ill, even more lives are potentially at risk.Whether we live alone by choice or by happenstance, we all share a common vulnerability. If we get sick, or injured, there may be no one around to notice, or to help.
As a paramedic I saw far too many people who lived alone who either died, or spent miserable hours or even days incapacitated and unable to call for help, due to an illness or accident.
With a potentially severe flu season on its way (see Increasing Concerns Over A `Drifted' H3N2 Virus This Flu Season), now is the time to make (ideally, reciprocal) arrangements with family, friends, and neighbors to act as `flu buddies'.
No one really knows what this mutated flu virus will do in the months ahead, but there are concerns we could see a major wave of (hopefully mild) disease. Even so, many hospitals may be overwhelmed, and the majority of people who fall ill will have to be treated at home.
Which means, if you haven't done so already, now is the right time to gather your `flu supplies'; Face masks, hand sanitizer, OTC cold & `flu' remedies. While there are no shortages today, in the past we've seen some of these items become hard to source during severe flu seasons.
While the CDC still maintains a `Treatment of Flu' webpage (which deals primarily with Rx antivirals for flu), their more `user-friendly' home flu treatment advice appears to have been shuffled off to the archive (`CDC Stacks').
Being part of a `high risk group', earlier this month I also discussed with my doctor getting an over-the-phone Rx for Oseltamivir, if I should contract the flu this year.
My `flu buddy' and I have discussed the logistics of how we'll deal with this (or any other) flu epidemic and we'll stay in daily contact with one another by phone. If either of us run a fever, or develop symptoms, we'll up that to a call twice a day.
While we are both fully vaccinated (flu & COVID), we won't unnecessarily expose each other to the virus. But if either one of us becomes ill enough to need in-person assistance, we are fully prepared to do a home visit (wearing PPEs) to provide whatever assistance is necessary.
The time to have this type of conversation with friends, relatives, and neighbors is now. If you don't feel comfortable actually caring for someone who is sick, you can at least promise to check on them by phone daily, leave `care packages' at their front door, or even call an ambulance for them if necessary.
This is also a good time to update and print out a 1-page (or wallet-sized) medical history on yourself, and all members of your family (see Thanksgiving Is National Family History Day) in case you need to see a doctor who doesn't have your medical information.Frankly, having (and being) a `Flu' or `Disaster Buddy’ to friends, neighbors, and relatives should be part of everyone’s family disaster plan. Since 2017, I've had to evacuate due to Hurricanes 3 times, and each time my disaster/flu buddy took me (and my cat) in for several days with no questions asked.
