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This is an international website intended to remain accessible to as many people as possible. The opinions expressed here are those of the individual posters who remain solely responsible for the content of their messages.
The use of good judgement during the discussion of controversial issues would be greatly appreciated.

Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response - A Citizen's Guide

by: DemFromCT

Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 18:04:20 PM EDT


Amongst the tasks we have set for ourselves is a deliverable way of teaching and explaining why you, the reader, should take pandemic planning seriously. As some of the social marketers advising and evaluating HHS' blog effort have put it, we need to address "Why me?" "Why now?" "What can I do to make a difference?" This new and original manual, Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response - A Citizen's Guide, version 1.2a addresses all three questions.

NEW! RTF (word-compatable) version here. Version history can be found here.

A wonderful tool for this task, it has been developed by a team led by Peter Carpenter, located primarily in California. This manual can be used for CERT traing or for general information. A message from Peter follows:
DemFromCT :: Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response - A Citizen's Guide
When an international team of experts ( Pandefense 1.0) met in California in the Spring of 2006 to explore the implications of an Avian Flu Pandemic one of the glaring needs that was identified was making sure that individual citizens had better information so that they could be prepared for such an event. The myriad Federal, State and local pandemic plans all focus on what those units of government need to do but none of those plans addresses the critical question of what individual citizens can and should do in anticipation of a possible pandemic which will far exceed the capacity of government and the health care system. That need has now been translated into a Citizens Guide created by a small group of concerned and well informed San Francisco Peninsula citizens which is being posted today on FluWikie.

The Foreword, written by one of the world's leading experts on this subject, Dr. David Heymann from the World Health Organization, does an excellent job of explaining why individual citizen preparation for such an event is so important.

You are encouraged to share this with others, post it where more and more people can see it, to encourage your company or organization to print copies for all of its employees or members, to send it to your local elected officials and newspapers, to translate it into other languages and to adopt it to other cultures. And we welcome your corrections and proposed additions to this version ? which will be an ever changing and improving document.

Peter Carpenter
Mid-Peninsula (San Francisco Bay area) Citizen?s Preparedness Committee

We are grateful for the opportunity to host this important document, and equally grateful for the team that has put it together.

We will be creating a wiki page for it, and suggested revisions can be posted there or here. Please download it, host it as described by Peter, and use it to spread the word about pandemic preparedness. This is a serious piece of work, and kudos to the team that put it together.
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Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response - A Citizen's Guide | 128 comments
Initial reaction: Just what the doctor ordered.
So when can we get a powerpoint presentation? 

This would be a perfect message to present to the public at pandemic meet-ups. 

ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

i wonder if a combo of American red cross
and this manual would do.

As posted in response to Kobie on the HHS blog:

It is pretty easy to get a local library room, and you can use American Red Cross slides and DVDs to do a presentation for your area.

To obtain and offer the "Pandemic Flu Public Information Series - Are You Prepared?" presentation, please visit the Red Cross Instructor's Corner. [Registration Required]


[ Parent ]
Great manual
I printed the manual out and mailed it to my children along with a copy of my inventory.  Because of my alarm over Y2K they have trouble trusting my concerns, but they've agreed to be aware of pandemic discussions.  That's easier said than done if they won't bother with fw.  Let's hope the manual makes an impression.
[ Parent ]
For those that want a narrated presentation
The Santa Barbara County presentation is also a good one if you don't want to provide narration.  I can't remember, does the Red Cross presentation come with narration or not?

http://www.countyofs...



ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

[ Parent ]
no, it comes with talking points n/t

[ Parent ]
Looks like I have some emailing to do
This is a great doc, no too long, not overly scientific.  Thanks for posting this Dem and especially thanks to Peter for sharing it!
Very useful!
I'll test a few reluctant friends with this, might do the trick.

The only bit that I thought odd was this on page 9:-

Twenty-eight percent of the U.S. population, or
approximately 675,000 people, died from infection.

Does it mean 28% of those that died, died from infection?

What I'd like to add (for distribution with my buddies) is a breakdown of what makes H5N1 so special. Most people I come across don't appreciate how odd H5N1 is, one friend said 'these types of viruses probably pop up every couple of years, we just don't notice.'

Is there a fluwiki page with all the pandemic tasks H5N1 has completed - adapted to lower body temps; large number of birds infected and dying; wider mamal infections seen than ever before; etc?

I've not made or seen one
good idea.
[ Parent ]
thanks for the fact checking
we will clarify this is the next edition.
[ Parent ]
% of U.S. population that died in 1918
the percent that died was approximately 0.6% (the population was approximately 105 million).
[ Parent ]
Why the worry about H5N1?
Not complete and not without dissent/clarification.  But FWIW.

http://www.newfluwik...

ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

[ Parent ]
This a great manual...
...and I'm planning on printing it out, collating it, and using it here in my area as well as where I work.

The only drawback, as a booklet, is the very small type font used... most of the folks in my neighborhood are older than I am (and I'm almost as old as dirt!), and have trouble reading this manual. Is there anything that we can do, short of re-typing the entire document? I've tried using Adobe writer to increase the font, but that just mucks up the layout.

Ah well, I do have some time...perhaps I'll dust off my copy of WordPerfect 5.1 and type it up on single pages! ;-)

good idea - we will explore alternative fonts - thanks

[ Parent ]
The manual can be converted to MS Word
But you must have Acrobat v7.0 or above and MS Word2003 installed (on a PC running WindersXP or Vista...I'm a Microsoft geek, not sure about Macs!). 

Open the .pdf file in Acrobat 7.x, then pull down File, Save As, and save the document as a Word file. It doesn't come down as a booklet, and some of the formatting is a bit off, but I'm working on re-formatting it for MS Word processors. It's gonna take some time, but I think I can do it...if anyone can do it faster, please do.

[ Parent ]
Thanks for doing this conversion
This response is a powerful demonstration of the power of communities like Fluwikie. Each person adds value and we all benefit. The Citizen's Guide belongs to all of us and thank you for making it richer and better.
[ Parent ]
petercarp---chapter one is complete
I've finished converting chapter 1 to a Word document. I've had to change a bit of the formatting from 2 columns per half page to a single column in order for Word to accept the page commands and also to increase the font size from 9 point in the Acrobat document to 11 point in Word.. I'm still tweaking it a bit, but I think it's coming along well.  I can email you what I have so far if you'd like.

I'm setting it up so that it can also be converted to single-page printout, ie: one half-page will expand to a single 8.5 x 11, and can be printed out front and back.  I noticed that as the .pdf file is laid out, it's not possible to take it to an offset printing shop and have them print out a bound booklet. I was a press operator for about 15 years (way back in another life ;-)  ), so I'm also going to try to lay it out as pre-press artwork.  This way, if anyone out there also has a duplex printer attached to their computer, they can print out the pages and collate them into a finished booklet to be handed out.

It's taking a bit of time, as I'm trying to a bit during my lunch hour at work, and bits and pieces of layout design at home, so this won't be an overnight project. But, I'm getting there...

[ Parent ]
BB
I would also be interested in getting it as a word document. I wrestled with it the other day trying in vain to expand and print page for page.  No luck.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Never say can't. Never give up. Never surrender."
[ Parent ]
Hi HitHaW--
Once I get the document finished, I'll have Dem post it here (or on the ftp site) for all to download. Like I said, I only have the first chapter finished, so give me a week or two to try to finish.

I'm sorta doing this in what little spare time I have here at home and work...we're moving furniture around and pounding nails at home, getting ready to finally get some carpeting put in, and work is crazy busy right now...so--I squeeze in as much time as I can find on the document, most of it at work. I'll let y'all know when I get a finished copy done!

[ Parent ]
BB
Muchas Gracias.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Never say can't. Never give up. Never surrender."
[ Parent ]
Oui, oui, senor ;-) n/t

[ Parent ]
wonderful!!
it'll be the first revision, and add ""re-formatted on July xx, 2007".

We'll post it.

[ Parent ]
Will do...thanks! n/t

[ Parent ]
Wow - what a great community FluWikie is - Thanks
The Citizens Guide truly belongs to the world and efforts like Bill's will make it accessible to even more people.
THANKS,
Peter Carpenter
from the Team that created the Guide so that others can build on it
[ Parent ]
PeterCarp, are there "raw files" for the guide? I've tried extracting
the text from the PDF in a number of ways, with no success so far.

If wanted, we could even create something like this or, even better, like this.

Please contact me at "lugon at singtomeohmuse dot com" if I can help in any way.

Thanks for the great Guide!

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

[ Parent ]
Another way to do it
for prepress is to get it into a single-page PDF layout--I mean where each page of the document is on a separate page in the PDF, not in duplex format as it is now.

Once it's in that format, the press operator/printer can easily prepare it for printing as a bound booklet. This seems to be the way it's done now. I publish a newsletter and formerly I had to prepare "imposed" pages before sending it to the printer--now the printer just wants a PDF with individual pages. They do the imposing at their end.

I think there are lots of software options now for preparing the "imposed" sheets for printing booklets, even at the desktop level, but the starting point has to be the basic format of separate single pages. (Hope this makes sense...)

[ Parent ]
sillia...makes perfect sense
Hand the printer an 8.5x11 page, and s/he can reduce/enlarge to fit any size final page a customer wants. Hand him/her two opposing pages and s/he can place them together in the computer, then print out the master on electrostatic plates.
[ Parent ]
idea
Has anyone tried contacting the originator of this document to ask if they can supply a PDF in a single-paged version, 8.5 x 11 (not spreads)? At their end, this would take maybe 3 minutes of their time.

If I had such a version, I could easily make an 11x17 PDF that would be printer-ready (for booklet printing) with my software...this would take maybe 2 minutes. Please let me know if I can help with this!

[ Parent ]
sillia...request has been made...
Lugon requested the raw files from petercarp here. Just waiting for a response.
[ Parent ]
I am asking that this be done - will post when available

[ Parent ]
petercarp...thank you n/t

[ Parent ]
we'll be glad with anything we're given,
and perhaps most useful would be, what? plain text plus graphics?

we already know what it should look like by looking at the pdf

plain text can be wikified/traduwiki'ed for translation if that's acceptable ... or perhaps you want to wait for version 1.2 before translating, if 1.2 doesn't take too long and gets really stable by 1.2? (yes, i've been thinking about making "diffs" between 1.1 and 1.2 in order to translate only what's needed - another good feature of plain text files is that you can use "diff" - a tool to highlight differences between text files)

just saying O:-)

Peter, Thanks in any case!

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

[ Parent ]
not sure
exactly what is meant by "raw files"--those might be in the format of the program used to create them such as PageMaker or Adobe InDesign, and that can get tricky.

It would be simplest however to just get a PDF file made of the individual pages. Then everybody can do their thing with them.

[ Parent ]
Upcoming PDF
Thanks very much to everyone for going so carefully through the Guide and posting your thoughts.  The note about the small type is well taken and we are currently working on an upgraded web version that will not require a magnifying glass. 

We are also in the process of working on 1.2 which should be available shortly.  Many of the comments posted here have been incorporated, so thank you again for posting them.  Fresh eyes are a wonderful thing!

Please stay tuned, and thanks again.
~ Sarah

[ Parent ]
I'll second that. (He said squintingly through his bifocals.) ¦¦ ^ ) nt


ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 
[ Parent ]
I third it. BTW switch to landscape fo small print, my first copy was done potriat and too small for young eyes to see. n/t

[ Parent ]
date of publication of the document?
I'm pretty sure it's my fault, but I couldn't find the date of publication of the PDF

In a matter like this pandemic, do the U.S. government and/or MSM ever intentionally deceive us?  
thursday 6-21-07
date of this diary.
[ Parent ]
Thank you
I started a pandemic flu prep. meme which is spreading to a variety of blogging communities.  I will add this well-written and resourced guide to my blogroll.

Thank you for providing this.

Is there going to be a request for HHS endorsement?

at the conference we talked about it
no decision. we also put this up on HHs so they know about it.

http://blog.pandemic...

[ Parent ]
clarification
the moderator at the conference brought up the idea of 'approved web sites' briefly during my panel discussion. The idea was never brought up by HHS, although discussion ensued. I did not suggest or endorse.

As many bad points as good... some people need authority, others think it's the worst thing since measles, what happens if sites don't get it, what would they need to compromise to get it, etc.

[ Parent ]
I'd compromise for lots of cash ;-) n/t

[ Parent ]
HHS endorsement will not be sought for Citizen's Guide
When we began this effort it was originally conceived of as a CERT Training Module. When told that it would take 24 months after submission to get it approved as a CERT Module we decide to make it a Citizen's Guide, for citizens and by citizens. In addition, it is already being translated by the International Medical Corps into appropriate language with the necessary cultural changes for use in Indonesia. It now belongs to the citizens of the world.

  We will not seek HHS or other government approval.

[ Parent ]
good for you!
and thanks for this great piece of work!


All 'safety concerns' are hypothetical.  If not, they'd be called side effects...
[ Parent ]
Thanks for the clarification
To me, this is reassuring, because at this point, I do not see the HHS as a trustworthy agency.  Leavitt has exhibited neither the will nor the leadership and expertise needed to take timely action, and to do the most basic things around pandemic flu prevention and preparedness - and I fear a real disinformation campaign is brewing.  Already, the HHS has trotted out the blog as a political tool for conversing with the public, and we all know that this did not occur.

The public will be steamrolled when the pandemic hits.  The sole mitigating effects will come from efforts such as yours, Peter, and those of the FluWiki participants and other web-based information dissemination sites.

The one "take-away" I have from the sham HHS blog is that there is power in internet communication.  It is faster, goes through less initial filtering of information, but then goes through much increased filtering as many heads look for flaws in evidence and argument and speak to them.

The great caveat is the degree of fragility of this kind of communication.  If the national electric grid is disrupted, how many will be able to rely on off the grid power generation for continued internet access?

What will official governmental communication look like in a  national emergency resulting from a pandemic?

So prepare, stockpile, monitor and take preventive action are about the best individuals can do at this point. Assume that there will be no outside assistance of any significance. Prepare for no food, water, waste or utility services/supplies for extended periods of time.

Use the citizen's guide.

[ Parent ]
more evidence the flu blog did more
than you think:

http://www.bytehead....

"Wow. I guess we need to start paying some attention here."

[ Parent ]
Printing the Guide
Hi ... I'm having a heck of a time trying to print this guide. The front cover is printing in an 8 1/2 x 11 portrait format and then the rest is printing very very tiny (almost unreadable) in a landscape format.  Can anyone advise what I'm doing wrong? Thanks -k

www.EmergencyHomePreparation.org -- A 'card-catalog' style of prepping information.   -
[ Parent ]
Never mind ...
just saw my question answered over at PFI! Thanks -k

www.EmergencyHomePreparation.org -- A 'card-catalog' style of prepping information.   -
[ Parent ]
What was the answer?
Can you explain briefly, or provide a link? Thanks.
[ Parent ]
Is this really what Canas posted?
"You're going to be staying home for one year. There will be no school, there will be no work. All we'll be doing is trying to keep ourselves alive." ? Richard Canas, Director, NJ State Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness

Was there some context not included? 

We won't be staying home for one year - not if we don't want to starve.  Even in the worst pandemic (seasonal flu transmission/H5N1 lethality) there will still be waves that will come and go during the 18-24 month pandemic period.

If we are trying to keep ourselves alive, we will be coming back out and putting our backs into the interim recovery between waves - recovering from the last wave and preparing for the next one.  If this quote is accurate - he needs to take a breather.

ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

[ Parent ]
I would urge caution
I do not see the HHS as a trustworthy agency.

in making broad-brushed conclusions, just for your own benefit.  ;-)  The HHS is a huge entity, and by no means monolithic.  There are parts of that entity that are more clued up than others, also some that are more concerned and sincere than others.  It is also likely that none has complete say over process.

In addition, as this process continues, various players within HHS and within the whole government can and will change, whether willingly or not, whether positively or otherwise.

The situation, IMHO, is highly fluid and constantly shifting.  Although the overall National Strategy and Implementation plan have been spelt out, at the level of implementation, there is always plenty of room for interpreting policy either way.  In terms of timing, I have no definite knowledge but I suspect some of the most important paradigms are being fought over right now.

Stay tuned.  Pockets of opportunity may spring up at unexpected moments.  We can only catch them if we are alert to such possibilities.  Just my 2C.


All 'safety concerns' are hypothetical.  If not, they'd be called side effects...

[ Parent ]
DemfromCT
I'm really frustrated, because I can't get this to open.  Is there another link?  Or could you e-mail it to me?

"I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man."  Thomas Jefferson
email me
at demfromct@earthlink.net and I would be delighted to email it to you.

it is a .pdf and requires a free acrobat reader from adobe, or built in software on a mac.

[ Parent ]
I had to download an updated Acrobat reader n/t

[ Parent ]
A Citizen's Guide very well done, but how do we get it to the masses?
I am writing this in response to the so-called state of pandemic preparedness in the United States, of which is currently non-existent in any of the states of our nation.
I know this due to my need to build out a pandemic model, for my own benefit to better understand the conditions myself and my family will have to endure in such a situation.
In my quest to build out a pictorial to better see my options, I have contacted the main government offices of every state and found that an alarming 0 percent had an idea of what to do facing the facts of an impending Pandemic in their area.
I didn?t find the lack of planning as alarming as the lack of belief of our government offices had that we were in any danger of a pandemic ever hitting our country.  I also took the liberty to ask if there were any plans to avert SARS exposure, only to get the same answer.
It is my belief that the governing bodies will never have any plans, and force the communities into their own planning structure.  It is also my belief that the local planning on community levels will also be a day late and a dollar short mainly due to the lack of information to build a viable plan.
Early last year I built a very high level H5N1 model for Orange County NY (My Location), at the time the kill rate was hovering around a 50 percentile rate, my results were to say the least frightening.
Out of the 574,000 population in my county only 21% were left alive to sustain life in the entire county, of this 21%, 18.9% were over the age of 70, living in nursing homes, unable to contribute to the sustain what little life was left.
My numbers reached a death toll of 368,000 in Orange County, although by no means a fully scientific model and I believe I came up short.

Keep in mind as well the lack of proper planning by the governing bodies will destroy any possibilities of local plans working. 
The government will in the last minute implement their ideas of quarantining, taking away any trade routes left available to keep the supply chain in order, triage their ideas of more needy locations, once an ordered quarantine is put into place no one will reach the supplies needed to live nor the information as to what to do next.
What can we do on our own?

Self Sequestering;
An obvious direction for most who know, however can we rely on everyone doing so when the time comes?

I see this hitting my county in waves due to the lack of knowledge on self sequestering, which leaves me to ask, exactly how long do I need to self sequester if the entire county isn?t on the same page as myself?

Stockpiling for the duration;
Another obvious one, however how much should I plan on given the possibilities of the infectious waves flowing though my town?
Will the supply chain be able to handle the sudden demand for product?

There are a lot of obvious questions here the general public will ask, however these questions are amply covered in the guide to pandemic preparedness, Very well done I must say.

But the more important topics of, how to enlighten them without causing panic (I have been told this is the incorrect use of this word, but I will use it anyway for understanding) in the streets?

How to better keep supply chains unhindered?

How to better equip hospitals to handle the flow of borderline hypochondria that will walk though their doors?

How to provide a more sustainable infrastructure to supply the public with this data long enough to educate and create an auto pilot second nature?

How to keep the government involved (I never thought I would be saying that, however the government?s involvement is vital to keep the public aware of the efforts) with the local plans, to avoid stepping on them?

The list goes on and on, however we can?t keep waiting till the H2H version is upon us to apply priority.
Social awareness, in a calm manner is the key to getting the information out.

Hospital and Inpatient Capacity
Hospitals are already at or over full capacity in normal operations.  There continues to be downsizing in the number of available inpatient beds.  Not only that, but hospitals that used to have unused bed space have eliminated that, so there aren't even many unstaffed empty beds that could be used when additional space will be required.

Forget treating borderline hypochondriacs - people with anything short of life-threatening illnesses and injuries (think respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, traumas and heart attacks) will not be able to be triaged into emergency departments.  Elective surgeries will be cancelled - joint replacements, gallbladders, cosmetic surgery, and even essential surgery will be subject to delays of unknown duration - resections of cancers and tumors, for example.

With sheltering in place translating into closed schools, anticipate very high rates of absenteeism by female employees who care for family members.  This will impact nursing and patient care support personnel to a large degree, as these are overwhelmingly made up of women (about 94% for nurses with an average age of 47).  Walk through a hospital and take note of the female to male employee ratio.

I'm not sure who will take care of patients, because physicians are not educated to provide nursing care, nor do they express much in the way of a desire to provide that care. In any event, where physicians used to be made up of a majority of males, that figure is much closer to a 50/50 ratio now - and the same question may arise for that group as well.  Will physicians who care for family members stay home and away from the patient care institutions?  If so, to what extent?

What about other inpatient facilities - nursing homes, assisted living facilities, rehabilitation hospitals, boutique and specialty hospitals?  Who will take care of those patients?

Just some more grist for the mill....

You raise excellent questions - and I hope to learn more about who is addressing them and what alternatives are being floated.

[ Parent ]
Couple of quick questions
Generally I thought the manual was excellent - especially as a point for starting.  There are many additional things that I think people need to know, but I believe the authors have struck a good balance between informing and overloading.

A couple of questions as I went through:

Pg 18:

The antivirals that could be given are antibiotics themselves, and although they can treat or preempt bacterial infection, they will not treat the virus itself.
(Emphasis added.) 

I don't remember seeing this before - it certainly left me confused.  Could someone elaborate?

Page 20: Nit - Should read: "Remember to clean your hands before ...."

Pg 31:  In the Basic Health Assessment and Remedies table I would consider replacing 'remedies' in the title and 'remedy' in the table with something like 'treatment(s)" for a couple of reasons.  First, it removes any implication of 'guarantee' and second, to the extent it is intended as comfort treatment when death is likely, it is not going to 'remedy' the condition.

Page 51: Appendix C good, but where to stop?  Could you link to something like the MN codeReady Build Your Kit https://www.coderead...(and/or other sources)?  Maybe this type of knowledge comes in Vol 2, but if they could know where to turn now, it might faciliate those that have been convinced.

Again, my compliments to you all for taking on this project and producing such an admirable and useable product.
 

ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

Antibiotics/Antiviral question.
Just me wandering into another one of the endless holes in my knowledge base.

For whatever reason I undertood antibiotics = antibacterials.  Not. 

Learn something every day.

Here's a decent Antibiotics for Dummies explanation:

http://www.drreddy.c...

ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

[ Parent ]
Map Page 11 and graph from wikipedia
Hi,

  Some quick notes.  These are just suggestions and you are free to ignore them.

  The map on page 11 does not show any H5N1 in America even though it has been found in wild birds in minisota and poultry in West Virgina.

  There is a graph on Wikipedia showing the incresing number of cases. The upward trend makes a good point. AIDS started out as just one case, then four then just a few people. Now it is a pandemic.

  Page 12 - Could "Metally Ill" be changed to "Metally Ill  and handicapped"

  Page 13 - To add a checklist item - Know there is much that you can do. Pandemic sounds overwhelming but it is not. Our greatgrandparents lived through it and we can too!

  Page - 13 Can "Your House of faith or whorship" be added to things to check on?

  Page 16 - Love the grahpic about spreading H5N1!!

  Page 21 - Glad to see we made the list. Should "Your local deptartment of health website " be added? 
  Thanks for not pulling any punches about insurance.

  Page 22 - I would like to add stock up on meds but am not sure how to phrase it.

  Page 28 - plan ahead for card games, books and at home schooling for kids. A positive mental attitude will serv you far better than bordom or depression.

  Page 38 - Ham radio lic is best but CB radio and Hand held persoal communicators. As phone lines dwindle radio channels may become crowded. Always yeild to emergency traffic.

  Page 38- create a favorite folder on your internet browser with frequently used URLs. Print out documents you may need or want to have in case your computer, ISP, the internet or the website goes down.

  Page 52 - some water for flushing the toilet

  These are just suggestions and you are free to ignore them.

Kobie

  Page 29 - once a year get have everyone get a checkup and record the results. Camp, athletic or boy scout health forms.

petercarp and staff
read this diary for suggestions, errors, omissions, etc
[ Parent ]
Thanks for letting me know. I hope HHS will do the same n/t

[ Parent ]
Houses of Repute?
Your House of faith or whorship

LOL

As I am often the posterchild for mistyping, I don't really care if I see one, unless it makes we laugh this much. 

ITW(Joel J)
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
 

[ Parent ]
Ohh, that is soo funny, I am soo very embarrassed. Thanks I will be more carful in the future. n/t

[ Parent ]
printing it - am i the only one who gets
the cover as a single page, then the rest in two pages per paper sheet (both on the same side)?  Is this intentional?

There's lots of room for notes.  Maybe encourage specific lists?  Or publish an optional companion notebook?

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

lugon--check this
http://www.newfluwik...

I noticed the same thing, and I'm in the process of trying to lay it out as a printing shop or computer printer with duplexing (two-sided printing) would require. You're right that the cover sheet should only be printed with the cover artwork on it, on the right-hand half of the page (if an 8.5x11 sheet were folded in half), with nothing on the other three faces...

[ Parent ]
BB, word will allow for A4 versions too, and easier translation
and you've got mail ;-)

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.
[ Parent ]
I got mail!!!
And now, lugon, you have mail too!!  :-)
[ Parent ]
Upcoming PDF

Thanks very much to everyone for going so carefully through the Guide and posting your thoughts.  The note about the small type is well taken and we are currently working on an upgraded web version that will not require a magnifying glass. 

We are also in the process of working on 1.2 which should be available shortly.  Many of the comments here have been incorporated, so thank you again for posting them.  Fresh eyes are a wonderful thing!

Please stay tuned, and thanks again.
~ Sarah

 

the new version looks great - could we have raw files too? pleeeease! :-)
I say this because we want to help translate it and so on.

It does look great!

Also, I'm pretty amazed at the fast turn-over response.

Release early, release often.

Friends, Now's the time to look for bugs and help these people!

Bug-squashing party!  See if we can make it Just Perfect!

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

by bug-squashing I also mean hand it over and look at people's faces - how do they react?


You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.
[ Parent ]
Raw files
Hi there,

Can you give me a little background on what 'raw files' are?  We aren't familiar with this term.  Also, what would you be translating the Guide into and for what population?  Thanks very much for your support on this!

Sarah

[ Parent ]
Raw files for translation
Author_of_Guide---what we're looking for is the original computer files that the guide was created in. Not trying to change them in any way...We're trying to import the guide into a more "user-friendly" format (MS Word2003)so that we can modify the layout to fit any type of booklet form. We're looking at 8.5x11 single- and double-sided booklets, 8.5x5.5 folded bound booklets, and even 11x17 folded bound booklets.  Even though they look better than anything else, Adobe .pdf files are difficult to translate due to theie proprietary software coding.
[ Parent ]
Re: the original computer files
Allow me to clarify---we don't need the original files, just copies of them if that's okay.

(BTW--"raw files" is just another term for original files at their final prep before publication.)

[ Parent ]
about translations
Hi, and thanks for the Guide, and thanks for taking the time to ask and respond!

The Guide is so good it would be a shame if it stayed only in English - not the only language in the world, you know ;-)

We're translating Dr Woodson's Good Home Treatment of Influenza - which btw is just below your Guide at http://www.fluwikie....

Our translation work is here and more recently also here (two sentences at a time, which is nice).

If we could have the "raw" files [and by that I mean a word processor file - maybe MS Word or whatever - from which we'd extract the text as plain text, no format or pictures] then we'd be able to place that text somewhere (either at fluwikie.com or at traduwiki.org) so that a voluntary hive of translators would (hopefully) do the job.

If we go along the same path as with Dr Woodson's manual, then we'd also want, after translators (often times anonymously) have done their job, someone to step up in their own name and tell you, as authors of the guide: Hi, I'm Name Surname and these are my credentials, which you can confirm Here.  I've seen the translation and I feel it's a good translation.

Then you, as authors of the Guide, or probably someone else under your supervision, can add format and pictures to the raw text, and create a translated Guide which would be released in the open.

You'd still wonder if the Some-foreign-language version has spam or inapropriate language, but at least you'd have someone else to blame for that! :-)

And, seriously now, you could also ask for comments (in English) about the Some-foreign-language version.  If that feedback is good, then you can relax: a good original text, a good translation.

Please contact BB, or myself at lugon at singtomeohmuse dot com, if you feel this is the moment to hand us (or anyone else) the "raw" text, or if you have additional questions.

And, of course, again, a huge Thank You for the Guide.

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

[ Parent ]
Raw files
Hi,
I actually put the guide together in Adobe InDesign, and at this point we have done a lot of editing within that file, so the only updated version of the text that we have is in that format. Would you be able to work with InDesign for translating, or do you need a Word file? I think I could send you the InDesign file without the graphics links, so that would be text and layout only, and the size would be ~5MB. Otherwise, I could cut and paste the text into a Word document, but I would lose all of the layout. Let me know what would work best for you.
Thanks!
Glenda
Glenda, thanks and yes, I think no layout needed,
which leaves me wondering how we'd import the translated text back ...  I guess we can solve that later or just YELL for help ;-)

Anyone listening who can help? Thanks!)

Looking for InDesign ... http://www.adobe.com... and http://www.adobe.com... (and there's also a user forum).

Multiple export formats: Deliver rich content using support for multiple export formats, including Adobe PDF, XML, XHTML, EPS, JPEG, RTF, Text Only, Tagged Text, SVG, PostScript, and INX format.

Multiple import formats: Import content from a wide variety of sources through support for numerous text and graphics formats, including PSD, AI, Adobe PDF, XML, BMP, DCS, EPS, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, RTF, TXT, and Word and Excel files.

We'd have to look at languages and give some a try ...  Ah, ok: at http://www.adobe.com... there's this:

Can the Roman, Japanese, and CCK (Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, and Korean) versions of InDesign CS3 share files? Yes. The Roman, Japanese,  and CCK versions of Adobe InDesign CS3 share a common file format, so you can open and modify Japanese and CCK layouts in Roman versions of InDesign CS3 and Roman files in Japanese or CCK versions of InDesign CS3. However, the Roman versions of InDesign CS3 do not have the typographical, layout grid, and frame grid tools for editing Asian text that are available in the Japanese and CCK versions.

So it does do Asian languages.

Maybe we can start small (just a sentence in Chinese) and start translating in any case?

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

[ Parent ]
export to RTF? n/s

[ Parent ]
yes, please! :-)


You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.
[ Parent ]
RTF? Most definitely!
Word will read RTF files. I don't have InDesign... :-(
[ Parent ]
Thanks for the larger pages and including some suggestions.
  Just wish the WHO would put H5N1 in America where it *has* been reported.

Kobie

Time to share, post, print and translate widely
In my original posting of Version 1.1, I stated:
"You are encouraged to share this with others, post it where more and more people can see it, to encourage your company or organization to print copies for all of its employees or members, to send it to your local elected officials and newspapers, to translate it into other languages and to adopt it to other cultures."

Now that Version 1.2, reflecting your very helpful input, has been posted and different file versions are being made available, I hope that this Manual will be agressively distributed. If the Manual remains only on FluWikie and is only used by a small number of people then we will have failed in our original objective.

So please share, post, print and translate this Manual widely. Let us know if your company or organization or local paper distributes it and if it gets posted on more general purposes web sites.

Peter Carpenter
original sponsor

[ Parent ]
Mom Listservs
I would like to send this document around with special attention to "moms".  They (we) forward a lot of stuff that is relevant to parents especially of young children. We have a LOT of listserves.  Usually it is for issues of special interest only to those with children (recalls, importantce of sunscreen, horror stories about flying with young children....) 

Can anyone help me word a short, maybe 4-sentance summary of why this document would be particularly of interest and important to moms with small children?  I can then use that paragraph as the "hook" and try to send this out as an attachment.  It has to get interest but not be too scary or it won't get forwarded (in my opinion only).

Thanks if you can help.

ACM

Pandemics are "Wicked Problems". - Average Concerned Mom

[ Parent ]
try this
Should an influenza pandemic begin during 2007,
there would at best be 1.5 billion doses of vaccine
available for use in a world of over 6 billion
population - and even this amount would require
24 hour production by the world?s influenza vaccine
manufacturers. Absenteeism from schools and the
workplace would rapidly occur worldwide, as well as
a surge of patients seeking care through the medical
system.

-David L. Heymann, M.D.
World Health Organization, Executive Director, Communicable
Diseases

This piece from the foreword by an international expert indicates the importance of planning for school absences and a change in how business is conducted. This essential manual lays out the whys and hows of how best to cope with a flu pandemic that the experts (and governments and businesses) are certain will happens sooner or later.

[ Parent ]
hmmmmm.. thaks
That's not quite it.  School closure isn't the hook,  I don't believe.

More, the hook is, "Again with the bird flu?  Here's why you actually need to pay attention now...."

I'll chew on it a while more.

Pandemics are "Wicked Problems". - Average Concerned Mom

[ Parent ]
hey, check this, then
different approach:

Be Afraid.
Bird flu is coming. We're all going to die. Except me. I'm not going to die. But you sure as hell are.

"Well, maybe not exactly. But check out this article, and a manual that backs it up."

http://www.thestrang...

Every single person I spoke to for this article?epidemiologists, emergency health-care specialists, pandemic preparedness experts, and politicians?said the same thing: The question isn't whether pandemic flu is coming, but when. "Pandemics have happened throughout history," says Meredith Li-Vollmer, a risk communications specialist for King County. "There's no question that it's going to happen. What we can't tell is when and how bad it's going to be."

Back at the Cash and Carry, we finished loading up our cart, our debates settled, and headed for the checkout lanes. Then we loaded all the stuff into the Flexcar, drove it home, and lugged it down the stairs into the basement.

We're ready for the pandemic?how about you?


[ Parent ]
Weird news paper but well written article. n/t

[ Parent ]
This quote from Grattan Woodson might get their attention
An extraordinary event is happening right now in Southeast Asia that has the potential to affect humanity in ways thought banished years ago. Scientists are closely monitoring what looks like the birth of a super strain of one of man?s oldest and most persistent nemesis, the influenza virus. This new strain has the potential to kill hundreds of millions given the right conditions. According to the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the required conditions are now in place. We stand on the verge of a once in a 100-year influenza pandemic that is an event quite different from our routine seasonal flu. Pandemic flu spreads like wildfire through the human race leaving death, chaos, and civil disorder in its wake.
[ Parent ]
thanks!
Yup, that's getting closer to what I need.

Still working on it.

Pandemics are "Wicked Problems". - Average Concerned Mom

[ Parent ]
Jot ideas?
Maybe jot down ideas for feedback?  You know your listserv audience best, so I'm thinking that your instincts for basically what to say will be the place to start.
[ Parent ]
Inky this is whay I have so far
but I'm not sure it is technically accurate and it is still a bit too wordy.

Preparing Your Family For a Pandemic

Moms, it is time to pay attention.

Things with H5N1 (the bird flu virus) are heating up.

I know,  you?ve heard it before.  "Again, with the bird flu????

But seriously, it is getting more serious all the time.

Here?s one example:  In Indonesia, they?ve been having a lot of  H5N1 cases, and many of them have been fatal (even with medical care).  In the past,  when people got ?bird flu? from their chickens, they got some Tamiflu and maybe their household members got Tamiflu too.  And doctors maybe wore a surgical mask.  Now, their whole VILLAGES are getting Tamiflu, and the doctors are in HazMat (?moon? suits)? and lately ? in the past month or so ? they have actually started vaccinating the whole town.  Only, these aren't long-term solutions.  Soon, there won't be enough vaccine, and Tamiflu might stop working, and  ?  we're going to have a problem, I think.

You really have to start paying attention now. 

By the time all the scientists are POSITIVE (and all in agreement) that we?re going to have a severe pandemic, by the time all the politicians are SURE it?s the right career move to let us all know about it?. ? it will be way too late to properly prepare for a severe pandemic.

And let?s face it ? we have to plan for severe.  What?s the point in preparing for a rainstorm if a category 5 hurricane is possible? We?re moms.  We prepare for the hurricane.  We have to; we have children to protect.

As Admiral Agwunobi, HHS Assistant Secrtary for Health, said in this recent pandemic influenza blog project:  blog.pandemicgov: "No one can predict with certainty what the next pandemic will look like. There are no guarantees or promises that can be made regarding its impact on society." 

He also said:

"Advanced preparedness is critical and individual preparedness and a culture of self sufficiency are essential. No one can afford to wait until after an emergency begins in order to prepare."

http://blog.pandemic...

"But what can I do" you say?  "If it happens, it happens.? you say. 

What we can do as moms (and dads, too) is learn about potential hazards we might face, and might have to ask our kids to face, and decide what risks we want to take and how we want to help our families and communities. After that, there's PLENTY we can do.

Here?s a great guide that just came out.  It?s called ?Citizens Guide? and it was written and tested for months by a community preparedness group in CA.  Read the foreward, by Dr. David Heymann, who is the #2 official at the World Health Organization and is Executive director of Communicable Diseases.  This document will get you started with your family and community in thinking through the issues of pandemic flu.  The link is here: 

You can read it, photocopy it and distribute it to your neighbors, friends, otehr moms, Town Hall, police, whoever.

And you can forward this email message on to any mom you care about.  There's nothing the government will be able todo for us in a pandemic that we can't do better for ourselves.  But we need to start now.

Pandemics are "Wicked Problems". - Average Concerned Mom

[ Parent ]
oops left off this part!
(It is too long though)

Please read it, and pass it on to your town hall, your police, your school, your friends and social organizations.  The better prepared your community is during a pandemic the better prepared YOU will be. 

They say in a severe pandemic, ?You?ll on your own? but I say, HOGWASH.  We aren?t on our own now, and NOW is what counts.  What we as a community do NOW will help us greatly come a pandemic, so get started!

FOr the past year or more individuals and organizations have been making TONS of material available for us to use in our homes and communities, and we need to spread the word about them NOW.  There?s a good, free Red Cross video available here: (Link)  and there?s a good free guide to home care for pandemic influenza here:  (link)  And of course there?s plenty of information available here:  www.pandemicflu.gov and here www.fluwiki.com and here.... whatever sites you want to add..

Please pass this document and these links on to your family, your friends, your town and community leaders.  Let people know what information is already out there about why and how to prepare.  Your children depend on you!

Pandemics are "Wicked Problems". - Average Concerned Mom

[ Parent ]
great project!
And yes, your way is much better.  ;-)
[ Parent ]
it reads great over here - powerful!! - please help ACM get this "release ready"!


You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.
[ Parent ]
wikipage started
http://www.fluwikie....

ACM, I'll give it a few minutes of edit time and then it's all yours!

You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.

[ Parent ]
ok, over to you!


You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.
[ Parent ]
It sounds great . . .
but please do remember that not everyone is vulnerable to the "mom" approach.  Every woman in this or any other country doesn't identify with the image or the expectations of "mom".
I think your points may reach those who are of that mindset, and in that way it could do good.

But - there are some of us - who, even though we may have children, simply do not respond to the buzzword "Mom", and some others will perceive that you searched for their vulnerable area and found it, and they'll resent that.

Also, when it comes to forwarding things via email, I'm afraid I am one of those people that pretty much immediately deletes anything that looks like it's been forwarded, and anything that looks like a 'chain letter' or something that is destined to promote my own good.  I would never read anything directed at me as a "mom", not would I read anything that says its for my own good.  Those are barriers to your approach that I just think you should be aware of.  It's a personality trait, regardless of whether you see it as a flaw or otherwise, and I know right many people who share that trait with me.  Then again, I'm one of those people who only answers my telephone if I want to when it rings . . . after all, the thing is here for my convenience, not the convenience of whoever decides to call me.

Just thought I'd point out some reasons why the "one approach fits all" really won't fit a lot of people.  On the other hand, I surely hope your core target audience pays attention.  I know you've worked hard on this.

[ Parent ]
thanks!!
my matra is 'know your audience', and you bring up good points. Since ACM does, and I don't, these are all just offered suggestions but ultimately her call ;-)
[ Parent ]
hey Clawdia
This is an approach that I think will appeal to a lot of moms I know, on the listservs I frequent, which do include forwarded emails, lots of which are addressed to "moms" or indeed "parents".

But if it doesn't get someone's attention, well, it won't.  Too bad, I guess.

Someone else will have to figure out a way to get those people's attention.  Hope someone can come up with something, the more approaches the better.

Hey, maybe the GOVERNMENT could make an announcement, wouldn't that be an attention getter?????

But I'll just go ahead with this idea and see if anything happens.  In my dream of dreams, it'll end up on snopes.com, status... confirmed!

Pandemics are "Wicked Problems". - Average Concerned Mom

[ Parent ]
I hope it works for you -
I hope it does get you a response from a lot of people - I was just saying that there are reasons that this approach won't work for a lot of people, including some of those in your target audience.  It's an appeal on an emotional level, and some people will take that bait, hook and all.  I just wanted to be sure you realized that some won't have any part of it.

"Hey, maybe the GOVERNMENT could make an announcement, wouldn't that be an attention getter?????"

Yes indeed - wouldn't that be a novel approach?!?
LOL


[ Parent ]
a little bit of feedback ;-)
I don't necessarily think that people will immediately delete this email.  OTOH, just cos we know so much about indonesia and tamiflu blankets, it might be useful to keep in mind that most people will get lost 2 lines into that discussion.

The second thing is, prepping needs sustained efforts. Tying the motivation to what is happening in Indonesia ie the immediacy of cases happening there might get people's alarms up, but the bigger downside is they will ignore the risk unless they keep focusing on exactly what is happening, which most people won't.

It may be better to focus on the big picture of what kind of risk H5N1 presents, no matter what happens in Indonesia.  ie

  • it is now in some 60 countries,
  • human cases continue to happen with horrible fatality rates especially among kids,
  • we are nowhere near having any vaccine available,
  • antivirals might not work and in any case won't be available,
  • hospitals will crash from overload,
  • therefore if this virus turns pandemic, YOYO.

After this message of the direct risk from infection and absence of healthcare, you can then add the secondary risks from living in a modern connected world.  That since we are so connected, there are 3 consequences:

  1. the virus will arrive in our country much faster than any expert is comfortable with,
  2. sickness, absenteeism, and panic overseas will immediately affect the supply of essentials to our grocery stores,
  3. the efficiency of mass media means everyone will learn about this at the same time, and they will all go stockpiling ie panic buying at the same time.
 


All 'safety concerns' are hypothetical.  If not, they'd be called side effects...
[ Parent ]
You know your audience best
But many are wary of anything with links or attachments. I wondered about the following as a template for an e-mail. It's a very rough idea.

I don?t want anything from you but your attention, please read.

The following is a translation from an Indonesian news paper, I apologise for the quality of the translation but it?s done by volunteers who don?t speak the language:-

insert one of the more moving stories

It?s a sad story, but no, I don?t want you to send cash to any charity.

The following is a quote from the Head of the US HHS

insert quote from Sec Leavitt

Stirring speech but no, I don?t want you to sign up to a political party.

The following is a recommendation for the use of protective equipment during a pandemic:-

mmm, not sure which sort of quote to put here

Worrying isn?t it, but no, I don?t want to sell you any survival supplies.

The following is a quote from Sister Talone, made on the HHS pandemic blog:-

something from the HHS blog

Uplifting, but no, I don?t want you to join any church.

The following is a quote from the WHO on antivirals.

something about how long it would take to produce a vaccine

Scary, but no, I don?t want to sell you any pharmaceuticals.

I told you, I don?t want anything from you but your attention. I want you to find out about your personal and family?s risk from an influenza pandemic. I want you, to find the links to the many web sites out there (including government ones) so that you know I haven?t lured you into anything.

What I can?t tell you is this isn?t a chain letter, because I do want you to pass this letter on to those you know and love. However there will be no curse if you don?t, only a lost opportunity to alert other people to a hazard that is:-

Quote from Margaret Chan about H5N1 being priority.

Quote from Dr Margaret Chan Head of WHO

My thanks for your patience.

It doesn't get the document sent out but it could be sent as a follow up at a later date

[ Parent ]
part of the HHS effort
will be to enlist the professional groups from AAP to soccer organizations. Endorsed and sent by them, this has real power.
[ Parent ]
DemFromCT - I sent an email to scouting
I've contacted some local people as well as WOSM in Geneva. WOSM oversees scouting world wide.

  So far no response. While scouting has done alot of good projects with AIDS and other diseases they may be tryig to figure out how H5N1 fits into the program.

  May I suggest two things.

  1) Show how their current efforts or programs can be used to help protect or lessen the impact of H5N1. Using their current program list keeping medical forms up today, cooking during power outages, public speaking, guarding access to medicins, etc.

  2) Never be afraid to talk to the big guy/gal.

Kobie

[ Parent ]
i would think self-sufficiency
would be a natural for scouting. ;-)
[ Parent ]
DemFromCT - self sufficiency is

  There is so much more. Once a year we get the kids to work with HAM radio operators and talk to other scouters round the world.

  There is making maps and learning to read them, visiting places and working on mind games. You are shown 20 itesm for two min and then have to write down from memory how many you saw - lots of stuff.

  Once a year the adults get together to either go over what is in the manuals or what is not. There special needs are openly covered by the parents of special need scounts with parents who do not have special needs kids - something that does not always happen without confrontation.

  I am more worried about meetings and education being cancelled. I know it is only for a year but one year in a kids life is a *big* thing. They are young for such a short time. Sorry - I relize I am preaching to the choir again.

Kobie

[ Parent ]
Hi Peter, thanks for this great guide!
As you said, there's no point having this unless we share it!

Just want to raise what might be a mis-print, for your attention.  On page 8, under 'A Brief Pandemic History', it says "Twenty-eight percent of the U.S. population, or approximately 675,000 people, died from infection." 


All 'safety concerns' are hypothetical.  If not, they'd be called side effects...

[ Parent ]
some suggestions/corrections for your consideration
Thanks for your useful and valuable document! 

Below are some suggestions that I think would make the document more accurate:

On page 8, instead of "twenty-eight percent" of the U.S. population"  died in 1918-1919 from influenza, it should be 0.64% of the population (675,000 out of 105 million).  This reflects a case-fatality rate of about 2.5% since about 30% of the total population became ill.)

on page 9, the estimate of 89,000-207,000 U.S. deaths reflects a mild-moderate pandemic (about 0.2% case fatality rate), but most other estimates provided in this document (p.2 California and world numbers) refer to a 1918-like pandemic.  This is confusing, as it suggests that more people could die in California alone than in the entire United States.  Perhaps it would be good to preface the numbers is these sentences with "in a mild pandemic....." or "in a severe pandemic...."

on page 6, it says "It is currently impossible to predict....what degree of death and disease [a pandemic] will produce"  then later on the same page it says deaths are "estimated  to be 2-5% of those infected."  Same suggestion as above, to suggest prefacing the statement, "in a severe pandemic".....

on page 17, it says that 2.6% of those who got sick died in 1918.  This is true for the U.S., but the case-fatality rate was much higher in some less developed parts of the world. (I'd suggest adding "in the U.S." to this sentence)  The worldwide death estimate of 50-100 million may be more accurate than the 40 million mentioned in Dr. Heymann's preface, but again it creates conflicting numbers in the same document.

page 20  The Happy Birthday song should be sung TWICE to estimate 20 seconds of hand washing.

page 37 I believe the intended name under the quote should be "Dr. Peter SANDMAN" not "Landsman," the spouse of Dr. Jody Lanard.  However, when I google the quote, it appears to be written by Peter Carpenter.

Hope you find some of these suggestions useful.

 

[ Parent ]
Thanks for the careful fact checking
Some errors seem to be hard to correct so keep pointing them out to us. We will gey these for version 1.3 - I hope!!
[ Parent ]
1918 case fatality rate
The 1918 case fatality rate was 2.7%.
[ Parent ]
1918 death rate has been corrected in version 1.2a

[ Parent ]
Additional chapter or appendices
The guide is well done - many thanks to its creators. I would add this. If I have only this guide when a pandemic strikes (and had not done months of research and accumulated a shelf full of books ;->), I'd need some additional information potentially critical for survival. I'd need to know how to purify water in case my stored water runs out.  I'd need to know how to keep warm safely in a house where the heat is off and how to cook safely when the power is off. Many people don't know how to function without modern conveniences. Ignorance could mean life or death during a period when basic services may not be available. We saw that when people died in the Midwest because they tried to keep warm using charcoal grills during an extended power outage.

A chapter on survival skills for the pandemic period could be added to the existing document. Alternatively, an appendix page could be added for each critical topic. (Frankly, different pages might be useful in different areas, so additional easily interchanged appendix pages might be the most flexible solution.)


InKy, in case it's not being planned, we should write our own index and flesh it out


You arm yourself to the teeth just in case.  You don't leave the gun near the baby's hand.
[ Parent ]
Good idea.
I'm all for this.

I do have InDesign CS2, if that's helpful, as a part of Adobe's whole CS2 package.  I'd hope that CS3 files can be manipulated in CS2 - anybody know for sure?  I don't think we'd necessarily have to lose anything, formatting-wise, to add more ourselves. I haven't used InDesign much, but just played with it a couple of times. It can't be that mysterious, though ;->.

The upgrade would be nice since CS2 doesn't run native on my MacBook Pro (also have a copy at school on a Windows machine), but looks pricey even for educators, who usually get a break. I'll check with Adobe directly, just to make sure.

[ Parent ]
This is wonderful!
I can't find the recipe for the cereal based rehydration solution though?

Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy. Ralph Waldo Emerson
pass it on...!
not sure where/what the ceral based thingie is
[ Parent ]
On page 53
It is mentioned and it says to see below for the recipe. Being  that I can look right at something and not see it when looking for it(according to my hubby) I was hoping someone could point me to it.:)

Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy. Ralph Waldo Emerson
[ Parent ]
ah
the authors of the guide routinely scan this diary for suggestions.
[ Parent ]
recipe - will be in version 1.3
A homemade cereal-based solution can be prepared by mixing one-half cup of dry, precooked baby rice cereal with two cups of water and one-quarter teaspoon of salt. This should produce an oral rehydration solution containing about 60 g of rice per L and 50 mEq of sodium per L. The salt must be measured carefully, using a level quarter-teaspoon. The resulting mixture should be thick, but pourable and drinkable, and it should not taste salty.
[ Parent ]
recipe is now in version 1.2a

[ Parent ]
p 45
Show me a coroner anywhere that is ready to handle a panflu year if it started next week; every place else needs to know who to copy.

Pre-pandemic laws about who may pronounce death, write a legal death cert, and move a body cannot stand unchanged during pandemic, and if feds/state/local already have altered, "field-expedient" guidelines for laws that they plan to have in force once State of Emergency (or whatever they call it this time ) is declared make those public now (so they can be debugged) and the communities make sure all the supplies, staff and preparations are really ready. I think each municipality needs its own legally-designated group that can do the functions on-site that normally get sent to one county or state location.

Collateral as well as viral deaths will cause surge.

Something about this page bothers me; not sure how to fix.
Maybe some won't read past the first paragraph;
call the police and someone will come get the body;
only later does it explain all sorts of things probably won't happen the way we'd need them to.

I wonder if I showed that page to some out-of-the loop public, a police captain, and a funeral home director, and someone who usually conducts funeral services, what feedback they'd have?
(Did our coroner just lose his job or was that the Medical Examiner? asking one of those might be interesting, too.)

comments, corrections and proposed additions
As you may have noticed, the wonderful Team that created this Citizen's Guide closely momitors this site. Your comments and corrections are deeply appreciated and enable us to quickly correct this Guide.

We would also welcome submission of additional material which you feel will improve the manual. If you have such material please submit it to me with reference to the specific place in the Guide where you feel that material should be placed. If your proposed material is included you will NOT be cited in the text as its source but we will add your name to the list of contributors.

This Guide belongs to all of us and your help in improving, translating and distributing it is deeply appreciated.

PeterCarp - Double sided copy cam out perfect.
PeterCarp,

  Hi. Ran all 61 pages through a copier and it made it double sided. Came out ok.

  I suggest folks add a blank sheet at the end so page 61 does not take any wear or tear.

  Page 12 - Url missing text
replace
http: // www.pandemicflu.gov/whereyoulive
with
http: // www.pandemicflu.gov/whereyoulive/index.html

  Page 19 - are there any suggestions for cleaning solutions like Lysol or antiviral spray v.s. anti bacterial?

  Page 22 - Add some text about "Do not be afraid to stock up now or that the food will be wasted. Buying in bulk is cheper. You will eat the food before it spoils. You can help your family test drive any new items. You get to find out what you really like and what you do not like and how to prepare it. Stocking up is much more than just buying alot of food and putting it all in the closet or pantry."

  Page 28 - Adding text about "Video stores, movie rental places and movie theaters may be closed either becuase of power outage, because too many people are sick or they have been closed.
  Also mail service may be disrupted."

  Looks good.

Kobie

[ Parent ]
...
petercarp, have you looked at the papers linked on this page?
http://www.newfluwik...
It doesn't matter what country they are from; they bring up good points.

[ Parent ]
very useful - thanks
they certainly underscore the need for and absence of preparedness.
[ Parent ]
Suggested addition
Petercarp, I'm working today on drafting some additional elements that you might include in the Citizen's Guide. My sense is that they could prove critical for survival in some cases.  Please revise however you see fit.

I could see such material coming right after "A Glimpse of Life During a Pandemic" and filling perhaps the remainder of that page and the next.  That change would bump other pages back one and eliminate the blank page on p. 42.

Alternatively, I suppose, such material could be added in individual appendices.

Here is one section, on surviving heat or cold without power.  It's just a draft that could likely be improved with the input of others:

Be prepared to cope without power

Keep cool

In hot weather, stay in the shade, preferably where there is some air movement. Save physical effort for morning and evening and avoid becoming exhausted. Cool your body by wetting your head and neck with a damp cloth or by wetting your clothes.  Drink adequate liquids.

Keep warm

With cold weather in mind, ensure that you have a means of keeping at least one area in your home warm should your furnace no longer function. (Fuel supplies of all types may be in jeopardy.)  You might rely on a properly installed wood stove and a supply of seasoned wood, or you might opt to heat one small room with a portable indoor propane heater, given an adequate supply of propane that you store safely at some distance from your house.  Kerosene heaters require special attention to correct safety procedures. Whatever solution you devise, raise a window an inch or so in order to ensure proper ventilation in the room(s) you are heating.

Never try to heat a room or cook indoors with a charcoal grill.  The carbon monoxide fumes will kill you.

If you find yourself facing cold weather in an unheated space, wear warm, layered clothing, but avoid becoming sweaty.  Synthetic or silk clothing that wicks moisture away from the skin is helpful. Some fabrics, such as wool, still insulate even if they are damp. Cotton, on the other hand, is the worst choice next to your skin because it does not hold heat in, especially when it is wet.  Between a wind-proof outer layer and wisely chosen inner layer, you can add anything you have that creates little insulating pockets of air, whether that?s additional clothing or even towels or newspapers to help keep feet and legs warm.  Keep your head and neck warm with hats or scarves or whatever you have.

In your home, create a small space that body heat can warm, even if that?s just a makeshift tent made in the middle of the floor or atop a four-poster bed. Huddle together for warmth as long as nobody has been potentially exposed to the flu virus and pay special attention to keeping small children warm.

[ Parent ]
Cooking without power - feedback, anyone?
I'd love to see the Citizen's Guide contain notes on cooking without power.  I don't know whether what I've written here is too much to say, but it represents what I had to learn about options, pretty much from scratch.  So here's another "suggested addition" addition to the guide.  It's likely in need of close scrutiny and careful revision - I just want to get the basic concept out here for consideration, and I want to pay special attention to solutions for people who don't have a lot of money to spend.  Please read and see what you think - make suggestions, overhaul, correct - whatever needs doing.

Cook without power

Foods that don?t have to be cooked or merely need to be heated will be most convenient when the power is out.  That said, it is important to decide, as a part of your preparation process, how you will cook food should the power be out for an extended period.  Camp stoves or backpackers? stoves and appropriate fuels can be used outdoors.  Some are multi-fuel stoves that offer versatility.  A Kelly Kettle uses almost any fuel to heat liquids and is offered with an optional cookset.

Charcoal may be used to cook efficiently in a Cobb Charcoal Cooking System or on a Volcano Stove (which can also burn propane or wood).  Charcoal should never be used for indoor cooking and is the dirtiest fuel option, pollution-wise. Its advantage as a fuel is that, as long as you store it in a dry place, charcoal has no ?expiration date.?  A chimney starter can replace lighter fluid.

Indoors, a cooking surface on a wood stove is ideal.  Sterno stoves and fuel can be safely used, but Sterno fuel does evaporate, as does Coleman fuel, which is highly flammable.  EcoFuel canisters, also called ?Heat Cell,? are safe to use indoors in much the same way Sterno is used, but EcoFuel does not evaporate.  Many kerosene heaters can be used for cooking, too, though fire remains a concern with kerosene.  Survival candle stoves (NuWick and Life Lite, for instance) offer another option for the purposes of warming foods or perhaps bringing water to a boil.

While all of the above are options, it is important to realize that cooking solutions can be had for very little money.  A ?buddy burner? candle stove can be created using materials as simple as a strip of cardboard, a small, shallow can such as one for cat food or tuna, and ordinary household paraffin such as Gulf Wax.  Cut narrow strips of cardboard (less wide than the can is tall), and coil them tightly inside the open can. Then melt paraffin slowly in a double boiler and poor the melted paraffin over the cardboard coil, soaking the entire thing until the wax comes up to the top of the cardboard, stays there, and hardens. Make a small cardboard wick or two to stick into the center while the wax is still soft.  As the buddy burner uses the paraffin up as fuel, simply add new pieces of paraffin or bits of candle on top to ?refuel? it. Use the buddy burner on top of your stove or some other heat-resistant surface. Use a makeshift fireproof ?lid? to snuff out the buddy burner when you are finished cooking.  Buy enough paraffin to keep refueling your buddy burner.

A small hobo stove can be used as a cooking surface atop a buddy burner.  Make a hobo stove using a #10 can, a coffee can, or a paint can.  (Ask a school cafeteria to save #10 cans for you.)  The can should sit open end down. The bottom of the can is the top of the stove.  Remove a rectangular section from the bottom of the can using tin snips to create a door.  Be careful of the sharp edges that will result. The door will let in oxygen to fuel the fire and should be big enough for the buddy burner to slide in and out.  Use a ?church key? style can opener to punch several holes just beneath the top rim of the hobo stove, all the way around.  These holes release and evenly distribute heat under the pan set on top.  A hobo stove can be used with any burnable fuel outdoors as well as with a buddy burner indoors.

Once food is boiling hot, you can use a ?haybox? to save up to 70% on fuel required for cooking.  A haybox is simply an insulated container into which you put your pot of hot food.  It keeps food hot for hours until food can finish cooking.  You can make your haybox out of whatever you have. It can be a cooler you pack full of some insulating material - i.e., pillows, clothes, grass, leaves.  It can even be a bag or a basket with insulation all around the pot and on top.  Food boiled for five or ten minutes will then require 1-3 hours to finish cooking.  Rice boiled for five minutes will finish cooking in 1.5 hours, for instance, whereas a pot of soup or pintos might require 10 minutes of boiling time and 3 hours in the haybox.

On sunny or partly sunny days, it is also possible to cook food only the power of the sun.  Solar ovens focus the suns rays and trap heat to cook food much as a slow cooker would. Plans for inexpensively made solar ovens and models for purchase may be found online. 

Since some of the cooking methods mentioned here may require some practice to master, it is a good idea to experiment in advance of an emergency.

[ Parent ]
Sorry about the ? marks.
Apostrophes and quotation marks in my word processor translate to ? marks - sorry. Please mentally replace the ? marks with the correct punctuation above.  I'll try to remember to convert to plain text before copying and pasting next time.
Who is Peter Landsman?
This is a fantastic guide...many thanks to all that worked on it. 

I noticed on page 37 there might be a typo...Dr. Peter Landsman (maybe Sandman?) 

Keep up the good work

It is Sandman - thanks

[ Parent ]
Influenza Pandemic Preparation and Response - A Citizen's Guide | 128 comments
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