Gadget wrote, "What needs to be understood is that a pandemic while damaging in itself is a bad thing. The wider consequences of such are what makes it a SHTF thing. Think of it as a cataylist to a perfect storm. A pandemic would shut down all of the elements that keep western society going" Totally agree!
Lets look at the top SHTF events that could happen:
1) Financial collapse,
2) EMP by a foe,
3) Pandemic of (insert nastiness here), and
4) Grid stoppage other than EMP like computer hacking, bomb, etc.
If Just one of the above happens (# 1, 3, or 4) we/the world in general would survive with marginal interruption. However, add two from above to the mix we would for sure be back in the dark ages not for years but for generations.
If you also look at the list from above an EMP strike would bring at least three other events around our heads.
As I reported the other day on this site I read that the missiles that keep blowing up that N.Korea are setting off, blow up at the ~ proper height for an EMP. Gee-wize Wally, what if they fired one off each of our coasts from a container ship? And did similarly to the EU? Just think of all of the ISIS cells that are here in the USA and in the EU. The caliphate comith says JohnyMac.