This time we are not fighting a single virus, Omicron, but in a brawl against a combined fleet of many pathogens. From the critical cases I have seen, many people are not infected with COVID alone but with multiple pathogens. The coronavirus, influenza virus, RSV and various resistant bacteria attack together, plus the patients underlying disease—making severe cases very tricky and no longer treatable by a one-size-fits-all protocol.According to China National Influenza Center weekly report, in week 51 of 2022 (December 19–25, 2022), the percentage of influenza-like illness rose rapidly in both northern and southern provinces; sentinel-hospital ILI outpatient ratios were 212% and 325% of the same period last year. A Lancet study of 212,466 UK COVID inpatients found that patients co-infected with coronavirus and influenza were 2.35 times more likely to die than those with COVID alone.This combined pathogen fleet is especially lethal to the immunocompromised and the elderly, and this will become the norm, though different pathogen mixes appear by season. Now in winter, the coronavirus mainly teams up with influenza, RSV and various bacteria. In summer and autumn it teams up with rotavirus, norovirus, Shigella and E. coli. In the heat of summer it may even combine with heatstroke, making rescue even harder.Medical crunch will also become the norm.Singapore also just saw an infection peak in November–December 2022; at its peak the median emergency wait was seven hours. That lasted about two weeks before easing to four hours. Singapore system is supposedly advanced with high mixed immunity, yet waits were that long; we will face no less.Singapore received 65,525 reported coronavirus cases in November 2022, about 23% of them reinfections. So each new wave brings a very high reinfection rate.By general epidemiological law, detected cases are only the tip of the iceberg; some epidemiologists think detected cases are only about one tenth of actual infections, so Singapore November true caseload was surely far above reports. But because most Singaporeans have been infected multiple times and have specific immunity, they stay asymptomatic and go undetected.Though Omicron is weaker than the original and early variants, its absolute death toll is the highest. Japan reported on December 30, 2022 over 148,000 new daily cases and 258 new deaths in its eighth wave. December 2022 saw 7,432 cumulative COVID deaths in Japan, the highest monthly toll since the outbreak.The previous highest month was August 2022, at the seventh-wave peak, with 7,329 deaths. Japan once suppressed the virus tightly like us and relaxed only recently; it did not formally lift controls until March 2022, and its reopening was gradual, a flattening-the-curve mitigation strategy.From Japan and Singapore, the future may mean several epidemic peaks every year, each claiming a batch of immunocompromised chronic-disease patients and elders early. At peak, hospitals will again be overflowing.Not long ago Ordos surveyed its COVID patients; 85.41% treated themselves with medication, only 0.81% visited outpatient clinics, 0.19% were hospitalized, 0.78% consulted online, and 12.81% neither sought care nor took medicine. That just 0.81% went outpatient and 0.19% were hospitalized already caused an unprecedented medical crunch—showing how limited our system capacity is.I think there is little point now debating whether a second wave comes soon or what the reinfection rate will be. Hold awe before the unknowable future; do not talk recklessly. We should look ahead, prepare prevention, protect the fragile, and study countermeasures.In this first wave most people were caught off guard, which inevitably meant more deaths. Now we should mend the fold after the sheep are gone and prepare for future peaks; the state, individuals and families must stock drugs with each season epidemics in mind.New peaks can come in any season; when, and how high reinfection runs, is not up to us but the virus. Mass聚集 at medical sites, cross-infecting, will spread other pathogens through society at unprecedented speed.This winter high influenza is closely tied to the huge crowds seeking care during COVID peaks. Medical institutions are the easiest places for cross-infection; visitors bring pathogens home and into the community, spreading them to more people.This poses a grave threat to the elderly and/or those with major chronic disease and impaired immunity, directly shortening their life expectancy. Our ancients described such people as a candle in the wind—their life flickers, about to be blown out at any moment.But we have ways to counter this. In my childhood, power was often out in the village and we used kerosene lamps; when the house leaked wind, the lamp blew out easily, so lamps had a glass wind-shield around the wick (young people today may rarely have seen one). That glass shield kept the flame safe.The frail living in such times need their own wind-shield. It has two parts: vaccines, on one hand, and a home medicine cabinet on the other.Early last year I repeatedly wrote urging everyone to keep a home stock of essential drugs; I said I myself had a cabinet of them. I warned the window the virus left us was closing, that it was late to vaccinate and stock medicines. Those articles are still up; readers can find these points in my past writing.The stock each family needs differs; I prepare by the constitution of each member. I always stress "preparedness prevents distress"—timeless. I do not join peak-time drug rushes, but my everyday stock is ample.No one should herd-buy drugs, but everyone should know the seasonal epidemics and their common drugs, keep some at home; chronic-disease patients must stock enough for their underlying disease. I cannot give that list, because each constitution differs and needs differ. I have chronic cough-wheeze, so I stock phlegm/cough medicines; I am prone to diarrhea, so I stock antidiarrheals. Each person should stock by their own body.Families with chronic-disease patients and elders should keep some immunity-boosting Chinese patent medicines—Shengmai Yin oral liquid, Buzhong Yiqi Wan, Xiangsha Liujun Wan, Erchen Wan, Renshen Yangrong Wan, Shenling Baizhu granules, Yupingfeng granules, Guipi Wan, Renshen Maren Wan. Also keep common vitamins—A, B-complex, C, E—and a little oral rehydration salts and glucose. These are basics for immunity, fluid balance and life support.I bought a big box of essential medicines for my own elders—drugs for their underlying diseases, for various infections, and common immunity boosters—so that during a medical crunch there is medicine to use. I also bought each an oximeter, blood-pressure monitor and forehead thermometer, to watch vital signs. As long as vitals are normal, there is no panic.The fragile should also watch their lifestyle. The Huangdi Neijing says: "void wind and malignant pathogen—avoid them in season." Back then people did not know microbes caused infectious disease, so they called them thief-evil. Today we know bacteria, fungi and viruses enter via mouth, nose, mucosa, genitals and skin. So wear a mask out, wash hands often at home, ventilate, avoid raw/cold food, no smoking, limit alcohol, avoid promiscuity, disinfect chopsticks and bowls, exercise moderately—this lowers infection probability.Besides thief-evil, avoid "void wind"—in the broad sense: bitter cold, blazing heat and strong winds are all void wind, and we should evade them.Risk is everywhere; survival takes wisdom. The wise never blame heaven and earth but protect themselves. Look ahead, learn, reduce risk, and we live longer. Choose by reason and data, not emotion and prejudice. Life is like being shipwrecked at sea; to survive, self-rescue is key.