It's a chicken-egg problem, though. Modern survivalism began with The Order, which was inspired by The Turner Diaries, which was published by the National Alliance, which started out as the National Youth Alliance, which was all about George Wallace's racist bid for president. Prior to George Wallace any "prepping" was associated with hard-right government elements - the goal of Civil Defense was to protect all Americans against the creeping influence of godless communism, regardless of color. After George Wallace? White supremacists all the way down.

George Romero's Night of the Living Dead put racism front and center - the only sensible person in that entire movie is black, and in the end he gets shot by a bunch of good ole'boys who use the ghoul uprising to oppress any living blacks. Romero's ouvre is a social commentary about man's inhumanity to man. Every "zombie" movie after that, though, is an excuse to be ooked out by your neighbors and hit them with a baseball bat.

The pandemic was never going to satisfy preppers because a breakdown of order is only necessary to permit the wholesale slaughter of anyone they don't like. "you didn't prepare for this" was an excuse used by Nazis against non-Nazis and will always be a euphemism for "you don't follow our creed." Realistically speaking, the minute the libs started wearing masks those guys who walk around in rad badges and boil their water were going to make a reckless embracing of communal infection a calling card of racial purity.