WHO warns of nuclear war. Don’t look for any fallout shelters in NYC (opinion)

Old fallout shelter sign at Fort Tompkins in Fort Wadsworth. (Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – When the Berlin Wall fell back in 1989, people said that we’d never have to worry about nuclear war again. The Cold War was over. The Soviet Union was on its knees.

I guess we got that one wrong.

The World Health Organization the other day published a list of medicines to stockpile, including iodine, “in case of radiation or nuclear emergency,” the Daily Mail and other news outlets reported.

Do they know something we don’t know?

It was part of updated guidance from the WHO on how to survive a nuclear holocaust. The organization warned against “intentional uses of radioactive materials with malicious intent.”

All this comes amid increased saber-rattling by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his continuing war against Ukraine.

Putin is enraged that the U.S. and Germany are supplying tanks to Ukraine. One Russian commentator said that Berlin should be nuked.

That’s got everyone thinking about what we used to obsess about from the 1950s through the 1980s: A nuclear showdown between Russia and countries of the West.

How ready are any of us for something like that?

Not very, according to the WHO.

Dr Maria Neira, the WHO acting assistant director-general, said, “Governments need to make treatments available for those in need – fast.”

She said that includes have ready supplies of lifesaving medicines to treat radiation injuries, as well as stockpiles of personal protective equipment, trauma kits, fluids, antibiotics and painkillers.

Remember how prepared we initially were to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic? Remember all the shortages? Imagine dealing with all that in the midst of a nuclear winter.

Back during the height of the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was a constant threat, there was system of fallout shelters across the United States where people were to go in case of a missile launch.

The shelters were in the basements of apartment buildings, schools and other buildings. They were equipped with water and food and were supposed to be a haven where we could wait it out until the worst of the initial radiation passed.

Some people even built fallout shelters in their own basements or backyards.

But those public fallout shelters are long gone.

After the threat from the Soviet Union faded, most of those fallout shelters were dismantled and the spaces repurposed.

You can still see many fallout shelter signs on buildings across New York City, including on Staten Island.

But the shelters themselves are no more.

So what are we supposed to do if Putin actually launches a nuke at us?

New York City last summer issued a nuclear preparedness public service video, which said that New Yorkers should get inside in case of an attack, stay inside and listen for instructions via the media.

In other words, we’ll be on our own. It’s no wonder that the video was widely mocked, including by people who thought that we really were under attack and that they’d missed the missile warning.

After Hurricane Sandy, we began to stockpile a few things at our house, including canned food and some gallons of water.

But I’m not kidding myself. If the Russians nuke Manhattan, we’re going to be done for anyway. We’ll be lucky to get enough warning to actually get back home and be with our loved ones.

And after seeing decades worth of post-apocalyptic movies with their zombies and cannibal gangs and slow deaths from radiation sickness, it might be best to just go up with the mushroom cloud.

Let’s hope it never happens. Because we’re not ready.

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