good question...
i was just discussing this today...depends on the agent, wouldn't you say? Anthrax is not contageous person to person, so you could presumable wait for 24 hrs or more and leave the area. I would do what I could to prevent particulate contamination of your dwelling, namely shut down a/c, heat and anything that might create a convection current for spores to enter your home. I would also put pillows, cushions etc over any air vents...They wouldn't need to quarantine people in this case (non-communicable, remember?), and wind, rain and sunlight would take care of alot of the problem over several days. You could put on a good surgical mask, or better yet a gas or other filter-type mask, and eventually leave the area. If on the other hand smallpox, bubonic or some other nasty communicable gets into the general population, you are in for some real ****. In that case, since people are the problem, you don't have to worry about airborn contamination and as long as you have sufficient food stocks, you could stay at home in relative safety as long as you didn't answer the door. In other words, lay in some large enough sacks of rice, corn or wheat that you can hunker down at home for a while. Unless you are in the initial wave of exposure, you should be okay...btw, ammo isn't a bad idea here, as foodstuffs will start to run short in your neighborhood, and looting could follow on the loss of social services in the wake of mass bio casualties.
