There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about American citizens getting emergency kits together with food and water for three days, and other emergency essentials. In addition to this, pundits… or perhaps wags… are suggesting we also buy plastic sheeting and duct-tape; the idea being that we seal ourselves up in a room should the are fall prey to biological attack.

For me, this harkens back to the old Duck and Cover service announcements during the Cold War; and, frankly, I feel that these latest warnings are equally as useful as those were… meaning not at all. It’s widely know, at least now, that the whole “duck ‘n cover” drill, at least when it came to nuclear attack, was really pretty useless. Tornadoes, earthquakes, and the like? Sure, it may help; but, in the event of a nuclear strike? It really just gave people something to do. We need that, you see: the feeling that we have power over our own lives. Without it, we feel helpless, and that’s really not something we want now, is it?

Back to the matter at hand: to paraphrase the newscast I was watching, it was recommended that we, “find a small room with few outside walls. Seal the room completely from any source of outside air.” Meaning, of course, cover the windows, doors, and air-vents. I ask you, though, if we don’t breathe outside air, what air do we breath? Air is most definitely a numbered quantity, and in the same way that you’ll suffocate if you stick your head in a plastic bag, you’ll eventually suffocate if you stick your body in a plastic room. Besides, it seems to me that we have more to worry about than plastic and duct-tape if we are truly under biological attack, like what comes next and how many guns do they have?

It gives us something to do, though, I suppose.