For months, bird flu has been on Desiree’ Moffitt’s mind. The more she learns about the H5N1 virus, and the more updates that populate news headlines, the more alarmed she becomes. Unlike when COVID-19 spread across the globe and shut down businesses and cities — a time, she said, when she felt wildly unprepared — Moffitt is now taking steps to prepare for a potential bird flu pandemic in the foreseeable future.

“I decided after that experience [COVID-19] I was not going to put myself in that same confused category again,” Moffitt, a 45-year-old mom of two in North Carolina, told Salon “So I've learned everything that I can — and it's not just bird flu, it's any event that could happen at pretty much any time.”

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This means when Moffitt is at the grocery store, she picks up extra gallons of water to store in case of an emergency. She has also started picking up extra food and putting it next to her water and extra toilet paper. She has a first aid kit, and water filtration set, and recently purchased a $3,000 freeze dryer.

“I noticed that I started to feel really content with packaging my food, sticking them in the oxygen absorber, and then putting them in my bin,” Moffitt said. “I filled my first really big tote with oatmeal and different soups.”

"If bird flu comes around and the infrastructure shuts down for a while, I'm set."

At the time of our conversation, she estimated that she had enough dry meals prepared for her family of five for at least one week. She told Salon she plans to keep making meals and stocking up on goods. Moffitt added that she and her family are backpackers and that the freeze dryer helps alleviate weight when they’re on their family backpack trips, too.

“A part of me is a little bit embarrassed because it sounds extreme,” Moffitt said. “But the other part of me feels that that is such a practical evolution in my thinking.”

Moffitt is not the only one preparing for a just-in-case bird flu pandemic. On Reddit, there have been several discussions in the........

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