[Homer]

I read an account of POW medicine in the far east during WW2. All too often, doctors were forced to stand by and watch prisoners die of wounds or disease for lack of medicines or material to do what they knew needed to be done. The medicine was often amazing, including reading about a British Army surgeon performing a successful appendectomy on a hell ship at sea without benefit of anything other than improvised and salvaged instruments and a sedative derived from dental novocaine injected into the spine. The same doctors eventually organized a prison hospital that treated guards and Japanese workers on a quid pro quo of care for supplies. I’d imagine surviving surgeons and medical units in 2000 may be in similar circumstances.

One thing from all POW stories was the dramatic effect of field sanitation, hygiene, and the best possible diet under the circumstances in preventing illness. I’d imagine a major effort to be made by all sides to proactively attack the common vectors of illness in cantonments or static positions. Bleach, lye and carbolic soap, activated charcoal, vinegar, iodine, and diethyl ether or their precursors are some of the eventually sustainable medical commodities that will be valuable salvage or trade. Alternatively, as raw material, infrastructure, and labor are available production can be organized. That said, it’s probably wishful thinking to assume that even the previously mentioned commodities will appear overnight. The danger point may come as modern supplies run low and begin to be exhausted and the decision has not been made to adopt earlier technologies. People will likely die as supplies are rationed and harsh triage is implemented who could have been saved a few years down the road.

Absent this there’s a whole separate discussion on the usages, acquisition, and supply of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and morphine, etc during the post twilight era. The already widespread cultivation of poppies for ornamental and seed uses may be repurposed as sources of opium and processed into laudanum. This practice was common and encouraged in the American South during the Civil War when supplies were short, it could easily come back into vogue.