See the commentary on panic over coronavirus and politics and other recent commentaries posted about panic. We don’t NEED to panic.

So what do we do?

1. Keep ourselves healthy, with plenty of food, water, medicine, and other supplies on hand for whatever mess government causes (or fails to prevent).
2. Keep considering others: as simple as covering your mouth with a handkerchief or tissue when you cough or sneeze, or letting someone get in line ahead of you.
3. Keep ourselves armed for self-defense against the petty criminals that government uses to excuse their power. And against the organized, official criminals that ARE government. At the same time, be polite.
4. Keep your ears and eyes open for con-artists, in and out of government. Call them out as needed to protect yourself and others.
5. Don’t depend on or trust banks – central or otherwise. Or credit card companies. Or stock markets and advisors!
6. Don’t expect government to help. Or keep promises. But keep our own promises.
7. Don’t believe everything you hear, read, or even see – check out the real story. And tell the truth yourself.

In other words, business as usual. At least for lovers of liberty.

Some more detailed suggestions and encouragement.

A friend and correspondent posted this about Beer Flu:

One of the worst days so far for the coronavirus was February 10 2020. One that day, 108 persons in China reportedly died of the virus.
But, on the same day, 26,283 people died of cancer, 24,641 people died of heart disease, 4,300 people died of diabetes and, on that day, suicide took more lives than the virus did – by 28 times. Moreover, mosquitoes kill 2,740 people every day, humans kill 1,300 fellow humans every day and snakes kill 137 people every day.

Another correspondent told me, basically you have 1.5 – 2 chances in 100 to die from Beer Flue which is almost about the same of dying in  a car accident or an overdose of opioids. We can also note that flu deaths in the Fifty States vary tremendously from year to year but seem to have averaged about 26,000 per year for the last three decades. Since flu and deaths from flu are concentrated in the winter months, more than likely several hundred people in the Fifty States died from flu on 10 February. And again on 1 March (when six people died in Washington State from COVID-19).

All but the most rabidly-paranoid people (and experts) recommend doing things not much differently from during ANY flu season:

1. Wash your hands and face frequently – use hand sanitizer (alcohol-based) often.
2. Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough – and to do when other people sneeze and cough near you.
3. Stay warm, dry, and rested – especially if you are in poor health, very young or very old. Get enough rest and avoid stress.
4. If you do become sick, get MORE rest, drink plenty of fluids, don’t overexert yourself, and avoid other sick people.
5. Eat “right” – avoid excessive caffeine, calories, junk food, and alcohol.

It is OTHER people’s panic (including that of government officials) that put us at greater danger. So also do these things:

1. Be prepared for government agencies – including schools – to shut down, often with little warning.
2. Be prepared for government to force private businesses and organizations to shut down. Again with little warning. If not force, then “strongly encourage.”
3. Expect transportation and utility shutdowns, delays, and slowdowns. Maintain adequate supplies of medicine (especially prescription medicines), food, and potable and non-potable water.
4. Expect delays in deliveries of virtually everything. But especially anything manufactured in China or other Asian countries.
5. Be prepared for people to hoard food and buy up supplies of anything and everything.
6. Expect prices to rise, based on demand. And then for supplies to vanish when government imposes price controls. Even local governments.
7. Expect government demands on quarantine, no-travel, and mandatory closure of almost every sort of business and institution. Such as banks.
8. Expect scamming efforts to ratchet up, claiming magic cures, protection, survival supplies, demands for help, and more.

This is, of course, a broad but partial list. We could discuss disinfecting paper money (even coins) and checks; avoiding hardcopy mail and publications, other people’s pets, our own pets if they roam outdoors, and much more.

But none of these things should be out of the ordinary preparations for any one who loves liberty or lives in rural or frontier areas, especially in the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, and the Sierra Nevada.

For example, as I wrote this on the 2nd of March, several hundred miles of Interstate 80 across Wyoming have been closed since early Monday (if not late Sunday) and are not expected to reopen for traffic until sometime Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps the 1st or 2nd busiest transcontinental highway in North America is closed for 36 hours or more. Tens of thousands of semi-trucks are stopped and stranded temporarily somewhere from Salt Lake on the West to Cheyenne on the East. As are tens of thousands of motorists and smaller vehicles. Last week, it was most of South Dakota and Nebraska that was shutdown for a day or more due to a snow storm. A new storm can come in any time.

As for politics, once again, this is business as usual, if a bit more hyper than normal. Whether it is Trump that is reelected, or Biden or Sanders that is able to oust him, the vast bureaucracy and the vast military-industrial complex will continue to function. And make life miserable – a bit more or a bit less – for billions of people. The same thing holds true for the various state and local governments. It is highly unlikely that anyone will go whole-hog AOC/Greta/Sanders socialist or watermelon Communist (green on the outside, red inside). Much less all out libertarian: even the minarchist version.