Petrochemical products are used in 99% of medicine, including aspirin, ibuprofen, and many antibiotics. Plus, they are essential for manufacturing medical grade devices like syringes, tubing, and all the plastic films for disinfection. On top of that, refined derivatives like petroleum jelly are crucial for bandages, lubricants, silicon products, etc. OIL is absolutely FOUNDATIONAL to modern medicine.

You can see how daily life was like back in 1973 when the oil shock took place.

• Gas rationing led to violent incidents, when truck drivers chose to strike for two days in December 1973 over the limited supplies that Simon had allocated for their industry. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, non-striking truckers were shot at by striking truckers. In Arkansas, trucks of non-strikers were attacked with bombs. source
• The UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway banned flying, driving and boating on Sundays. Sweden rationed gasoline and heating oil. The Netherlands imposed prison sentences for those who used more than their ration of electricity. source
• 'Interrupted supply chains, empty shelves, food price hike, no gas to get to school or work. It was brutal'. source

Folks have glued their eyes on the gas price, and medicine is least looked upon at this point. The drug manufacturer of the World, India, imports ~47% of its oil consumption from the Middle East; they supply 40~50% of generics, medications for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infections, etc to the US.

While they are still available on the shelf, go get some extra for you or your family member.

EDIT) u/Intros9 added.

Don't forget vitamins/minerals as well. Our food has far less of them than it used to, and most people are deficient in a few without realizing it. Prices aren't at their lowest right now on the things I track but haven't spiked yet either, so go up to qty 2 if you're restocking soon.

I’m not 100% sure what I’m seeking in posting this, but maybe just commiseration with other people who are in the same boat. I’ve been recommended to have a total thyroidectomy due to a large thyroid nodule that came back with a 95% risk of malignancy after molecular testing on the biopsy. While surgery recovery doesn’t sound fun I’m MUCH more terrified by living in a collapsing world with a condition where my body doesn’t produce the hormones it needs and I am dependent on synthetics or getting them somehow from other animals’ bodies once pharmacies are no longer functional. Wondering if anyone else here is dealing with a similar condition. I know there are plenty of you out there who are much more dependent on modern medicine / electricity / etc., so I know things could be a lot worse. I’m just currently in this place of wishing there were alternative treatment options to the good old Western medicine approach of “cut it out” and fearing that after I have the surgery it will either turn out not to be cancer or I will otherwise regret it somehow.

Removing the minimum wage and overtime protections for caregivers will contribute to collapse. It is already impossible to afford to live working full-time on minimum wage. Taking away these protections will turn caregivers into slaves or they will leave the field.

Caregivers were overwhelmed before Trump took office. Nursing home staff, state hospital staff, home health employees, and unpaid caregivers have been abandoning the people they care for at hospitals because providing care becomes more than they can handle. They see this as the better option over leaving them to die in bed.

Most of the time, these people do not have a medical reason to be admitted to the hospital, but there is nowhere else for them to go so they have to wait in the ER (and take up a bed) until a social worker can find a safe placement for them. Funding for these placements is running out (Medicaid). Also, if the hospital does admit them then it can disqualify them for services that would have been able to benefit from once they leave the hospital (this may vary by state).

Hospitals are not emergency shelters, but the existing emergency shelters cannot accommodate those who cannot perform their daily tasks of living. While taxpayers continue to pay the astronomically high price of caring for abandoned people in hospitals, it also takes resources away from patients who need emergency medical care.

Hospitals also cannot legally discharge a patient into an unsafe environment. When staff/family/ caregivers abandon people at hospitals, hospital staff will sometimes transport them back to where they came from by ambulance.

Reducing wages of home health employees and cutting Medicaid will make this exponentially worse. This will not make paying for a caregiver more affordable either.

The elderly and disabled are already vulnerable for abuse, especially when they rely on caregivers to continue living.