The Coming Plague Will Be Defined by Newly Emerging Diseases

The Coming Plague Will Be Defined by Newly Emerging Diseases

by Jeff Edwards

In 1994, researcher Laurie Garrett wrote the book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. The book elevated awareness to the point that President Bill Clinton raised epidemic threats to elements of official national security policy. It would be another 16 years before the world would get to see what happens when a newly emerging disease is unleashed on the world.

The global response to the COVID-19 virus demonstrated that while governments can get a few things right, they get more wrong when it comes to diseases. It's not Ebola, a Coronavirus, or some type of animal flu that keeps the world's brightest minds up at night. Rather, it is the inevitable plague from a threat we don't even know exists yet. The time to get your family ready is now. 

Table of Contents

  • 01

    Newly Emerging Diseases Take Many Forms

  • 02

    Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

  • 03

    Preparing Your Family for the Coming Plague

  • 04

    Laurie Garrett Calls for Leaders to Prepare for the Big One

  • 05

    Next-Level Preparation for the Next-Level Prepper

  • 06

    COVID Backlashes Around the World Have Fostered Complacency


Newly Emerging Diseases Take Many Forms

To the novice, the words virus, disease, and infection are often used interchangeably. However, there are some key differences in the ecology of plagues that one can understand in order to prep for the threat at hand. 

A virus may cause a disease, but the virus itself is not a disease. For example, the virus SARs-CoV-2 causes the disease COVID-19. The virus HIV causes AIDS. Microbes are also known to cause disease with one most famous being the Yersinia Pestis bacterium that led to what is known as The Black Death. 

Disease ecology would tell us that the greatest threat is from virus due to their ability to spread easily. However, there is currently a drug resistant tuberculosis on the rise thanks to a bacterium known as Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. The point is that we don't know from what direction the threat will come and that is why serious preppers must prepare themselves for both. 

Emerging Infectious Diseases | Johns Hopkins Medicine

image source: www.hopkinsmedicine.org

Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

We borrow the phrase from journalist Laurie Garrett's book because it accurately depicts what happens when plague descends upon man. The implication is two fold. One, that the plague could strike when the world is already in a period of social upheaval. Two, the plague itself can and will cause social upheaval. 

There is perhaps no better case example to explore when it comes to our battles with microbes and viruses than the Black Death itself. The plague likely originated along trade routes from Asia and arrived on rat infested ships into ports throughout Europe. The year 1347 is most associated with the start of the Black Death and by 1351, Europe had lost between 30% to 60% of its entire population. 

If the same were to happen today, that would be the equivalent of up to 375 million dead. Some cities would lose over half their population in just a matter of weeks with such an outbreak infectious disease experts would be at loss over how to handle the pandemic. That's roughly what we saw with COVID-19 as public health officials who have studied virology their entire lives were still forced to make it up as they went.

At the end of the day, we think you are in the best position to prepare your family as COVID-19 is a definitive account to the fact that you can't rely on government to get it right. Expect no mercy from the bacterium/virus and no help from your government. It is on you. 

Preparing Your Family for the Coming Plague

One of the greatest threats in the world of molecular biology is a virus that is airborne. People cough, sneeze, and breath on a regular basis and the air is the vehicle for transmission, we're in trouble. What saved the world during the last pandemic was that COVID-19 was truly not that deadly to young and healthy. 

What was both disturbing and entertaining was the various makeshift masks that people came up with in the early days of 2020. Any piece of cloth or plastic wielded together by a grandma with crochet needle was passed off as "protection." Here at MIRA Safety, we know better. 

A reasonable upgrade stopping short of a full face gas mask would be a half face respirator like the one we sell. It is small and compact enough where you can use it as an EDC mask that you keep in your car. Because the last thing you would want to do is put on your mask only to what your child be exposed, we offer mask options for kids as well. 

Your ability to breathe clean air during the coming plague will be essential. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of the cure or whatever vaccine or antibiotic they come up with. Right now, the Harvard School of Public Health is tracking a rise in the cases of bird flu throughout the United States and if we were in some communities, we'd have the half-face respirator at the ready. 

You don't have to wait for the "big one" to be able to use this PPE technology. The half-face respirator has a shelf life of ten years, so you can store it away for that day if you want. However, this PPE can save you today from the virus and bacterium that we already know exists. 


Image Source: MIRA Safety

Laurie Garrett Calls for Leaders to Prepare for the Big One

Garrett won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on this book and yet, her most profound impact may be advocacy that she has undertaken since the book was published. She argued that medical advancements in vaccines and treatments in the 70s and 80s led many to conclude that humans were now masters over their microbial and viral foes. 

The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. Humans are as susceptible now as they have ever been to new and emerging threats. Scientists are increasingly worried that newly thawed out tundra due to rising temperatures may unleash ancient pathogens for which the world is not prepared. 

Some of these pathogens have been trapped in the ice for thousands and even millions of years. There would be no immunity to these dormant threats as they have not spread throughout humanity. Ancient bacteria may hold antibiotic resistant properties that could be spread to existing bacteria through horizontal gene transfer. Toxic shock syndrome could become a common occurrence among humans if this takes place. 

Finally, you  have what every mad scientist is cooking up in their government funded labs around the world. It is not going to be Ebola or a Coronavirus that ends humanity. It will be something altogether new and whether that is through defrosting permafrost or a mad scientist, the coming plague is seemingly inevitable. 

Image courtesy of Ben P. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)

Next-Level Preparation for the Next-Level Prepper

Infectious diseases threatening humanity are nothing new. What is new is the technology that will carry a new disease around the world in a matter of hours. The global spread of the Coronavirus should be a wake-up call to a world on the brink of disaster. Lockdowns and travel bans helped slow the spread, but they didn't fully eradicate it.

Once the threat genie is out of the bottle in an increasingly interconnected world, humans can't stop it. This is true even if it is a virus created in a lab or mutated old diseases released from thawing Tundra. Environmental conditions around the world have made us a ripe target for the new and emerging threat. 

In a world that has become complacent, even after COVID-19, we call on our audience to stay vigilant and be prepared. The C21 Full-Face Respirator is the best mask we can offer due to its combined CBRN protection and tactical capabilities. 

Humans experiencing a global plague are scared humans and scared humans are dangerous humans. You have to expect that you will have to fight in such a world and tactical ability is paramount. This means a tactical full-face respirator, Level 4 Body armor, guns, ammo, water, food, and more ammo. Even a full HAZMAT suit is not overkill for such a world. Prepare, prepare, and then prepare some more. 

Image source: MIRA Safety

COVID Backlashes Around the World Have Fostered Complacency

In such a scenario where an emerging plague is starting to circle the globe, it is important to understand the environment in which it will incubate. The new threat will be entering a world where backlashes against the harsh COVID restrictions will have fostered culture of complacency and noncooperation. 

Many in the world feel a betrayal of trust about what their government did and did not tell them. Changing social and environmental conditions around the world means that your fellow human will not comply with new restrictions and lockdowns. They will have willingly fostered the spread of new and potentially species ending threats before they realize that this plague is the big one. 

Dangers of ignoring the coming plague will have devastating consequences for all of humanity and it will be humans that we ultimately have to thank for our own demise. Investigative journalist Laurie Garrett puts forward a frightening vision of the future when humans fail to take the threat seriously. Keep in mind, she wrote that book 16 years before COVID-19.

We highly recommend this book. Laurie Garrett takes us on a wild journey through the world of infectious diseases and it is the definitive account of the infectious world. Garrett has done more to advance modern preparedness to prepare us for the future and a deeply unsettling reality. 

Conclusion and Summary

From Sub-Saharan Africa to the frozen tundra of Siberia, the threat is out there and it is real. Complacency and the improper use of antibiotics has made us ripe for a new bacterium to spread around the world. Chemical weapons manufacturers and ambitious scientists are constantly tinkering around with the next lab grown threat to menace the globe. 

Preppers cannot afford to become complacent in the face of such threats. Imagine having all the guns and ammo you need to survive for the next 50 years only have your buddy sneeze in your face and end it all. You don't have to be a science writer or have one a Pulitzer prize for explanatory journalism to understand the threat at hand. It is real and the coming plague is, well, on its way. Now is the time to prepare for the day that most people dread.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Laurie Garrett and what is The Coming Pandemic?
What can the prepper do in the face of infectious diseases sweeping the world?
How will new threats emerge and where will they come from?
What will happen to social order of a death rate similar to the Black Plague hits the world?