What if... (Surviving Human Extinction in Two Phases)

...COVID keeps mutating faster than people can get vaccinated, or the vaccine no longer works for the new variants that arise?  It then becomes as contagious than the most contagious disease in existence--measles--and so deadly that there's no surviving for the vast majority of the population?  And it drives humanity into a state of mass death beyond anything we've seen thus far?  I'm talking a near-extinction event where only a few hundred thousand or million people remain on the entire Earth.  

This could be the breaking point event climate scientists have warned about for years but projected to be much further into the future.  We knew diseases were going to get worse with climate change, we just didn't know what it'd look like or how soon it'd happen.  Mosquito & tick-borne diseases, "Nipah"--a disease with a 70% death rate, hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and Marburg, the coronavirus family (SARS, MERS, COVID)... the list goes on.  All of these are projected to become more erratic & severe due to climate change.  

But if COVID is the one that does us in, what would that look like?  If you were one of the last few thousand people alive, what would your game plan be for surviving doomsday & emerging victorious?  Would you refer to all the stupid zombie movies you've seen or would you have an actual plan?  People focus on their personal arsenal as a way to protect themselves but that's only part of the picture.  Personally, I know that guns & ammo are not enough to sustain me in the event of an extinction level crisis.  It helps to be able to protect your belongings from thieves but it's not the be-all, end-all.  You'd need to know how to filter water, grow food, build protective structures & do other basic tasks to ensure your survival (assuming society as we know it--buildings, roads & infrastructure--were wiped out).  There's no reason to think we'd have to permanently live in the forest like survivalists seem to think... at least not in this COVID death scenario.  That's more of a nuclear warfare thing.  

Having been to Burning Man (in a tent, not a fancy RV) and similar harsh environment "roughing it" events, I've experienced what it's like to live out in the elements & rely on your own foresight & grit for your survival.  There are moments of pure bliss and sheer misery--it's not something I'd want to do more than once, honestly.  But living in a post-apocalyptic world with fewer people would presumably not be as harsh as that.  We wouldn't be thrust into a scalding desert environment with alkaline sand blowing in our faces & no modern structures for comfort.  

There would likely be a period of total isolation during the pandemic where you'd need to live completely alone to avoid infection, but once that's over things would return to relative normalcy.  Reading accounts of what addicts did during Hurricane Katrina gives an idea of what one can expect during a disaster of that magnitude, and a COVID apocalypse wouldn't even look like a weather disaster (though those are coming with climate crisis at our door).  

Survival in Two Phases

I imagine a disease extinction event would go in two main phases:  the Isolation Phase and the Return to Normalcy.  During isolation you'd need to live completely separate from all other people (or with only 1 or 2 others, max) to avoid contracting the new mutant version of the virus, wearing whatever masks, gloves & other PPE you've acquired to keep yourself safe.  You'd also have to employ survival tactics like hunting, gathering & fishing if you lived in the wild unless you were able to somehow acquire a long-lasting supply of food & water that didn't require you to come in contact with anyone else.  This phase would be the true test of your survival skills & mental fortitude.  I'm not talking about a camping trip here.  This is an all-seasons exile of unknown duration requiring extreme rationing & self-sufficiency.  Think "Into the Wild" but not in Alaska... just the wilderness in whatever state/country you're currently located.  Would you be able to abandon the comforts of the modern world and everyone you love if it meant saving your own life?  

The Return to Normalcy would be the fun part.  Well, after you grieved everyone you lost to the plague of course.  It's basically what it sounds like:  emerging from your hidey hole and seeing who and what still remained after the viral holocaust.  Assuming infrastructure like buildings, roads & indoor plumbing were still up and running, this Brave New World might be preferable to what you left behind.  Fewer people, less traffic, no pointless non-essential jobs, no social image to maintain.  A chance to start your life completely from scratch and focus on your own survival and happiness.  Where would you go first?  What would you do?  Capitalism is dead.  Money has no meaning--people need goods & services.  Bartering is the new currency.  

After stocking up on essentials like food and water, I'd hit up the pharmacies & raid them for drugs, then the dispensaries.  Drugs are important to have in your survival stash & who knows if my doctor would survive the mass extinction?  Yes, drugs need to be hoarded along with other medical equipment like masks, syringes, Band-Aids, rubbing alcohol & other First-Aid items.  But if you could have ANY drug you wanted?  I'd go for the Dilaudid, OxyContin, Desoxyn, phendimetrazine, Mydayis, Adderall, Seconal, Epidiolex (expensive CBD) & Rohypnol.  And at the weed shops I'd pick up whatever top shelf product they had with a hybrid or indica bent along with the nicest vapes & smoke supplies.  Then get busy growing my own opium poppies & weed in the fields behind my house.  And everywhere else there's a free patch of land, fuck it.  

Next I'd head to the home furnishing stores & trick out my house (read: mansion).  Just get all the things I could never afford & hope all the remaining people on Earth were doing the same and having a DAMN good time doing it.  Have my pick of any vehicle at the car lots--a Lambo?  Or maybe one of these bad boys?  After "shopping" I'd be sure to drop all my extra stuff off at the donation site for whoever needs it.  I have tons of old clothes, shoes, canned goods, tools & other things that are in excellent condition.  There's enough to go around in this new land of abundance.  No homelessness, hunger or poverty and far fewer people to fight over resources.  

Even if COVID doesn't lead to an end-of-days scenario and we get it under control ultimately, the climate crisis is imminent.  The IPCC just issued its most dire warning ever, stating that we're now "locked in" to our current state of extreme weather for centuries or millennia and may start seeing "1000-year storms" as 100-year storms become the norm.  Hurricane Ida's overland trip from Louisiana to New York, bringing unprecedented wedge tornadoes & subway flooding while the West Coast burned all summer is just a taste of what's to come.  The human race's future looks murky at best.  Perhaps a disease wiping out 90% of humanity would be just the thing needed to halt climate change?  I don't see us collectively making the necessary changes otherwise.  

Now would be a great time to reassess how you live your life & what priorities you are putting at the top of your list.  We're all gonna die individually anyway, but the whole human race's extinction could be a LOT closer than any of us anticipated.  Maybe that 70-hour work week fueled by Starbucks & stress should take a backseat to your own happiness for once?  

Of course this is a silly fictional post.  I've never looted or stolen anything in my life so chill tf out, Karens.  But with the 4th wave/Delta variant upon us, it's an interesting and timely--if far-fetched--thing to think about.  My survival brain has always kept the possibility of survivalism/end times somewhere in the back of my mind and I have started a nice little drug & mask hoard "just in case".  If shit hits the fan, do you have what it takes to make it in complete isolation from everyone until it all blows over?  If the social paradigm goes tits up, do you have the adaptive skills Darwin deemed necessary to survive?