|
Flu Wiki Forum
Welcome to the conversation Forum of Flu Wiki
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.
|
Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 18:31:01 PM EST
|
( - promoted by DemFromCT)
Yesterday, I was in Washington, DC at a very unique meeting. I had the opportunity to meet and work with a small group of police executives from up and down North America (from Florida to Canada) who had extensive experience with disasters ranging from hurricanes to SARS to serial shootings.
I was there to help contribute to a draft document to assist police executives in pandemic preparedness. While the work products of working groups and drafts are, by nature, off the record, I can say that there were talented and dedicated individuals from literally all over North America who take this topic seriously and who are engaged and committed to disseminating appropriate information to police forces so as to better prepare themselves.
There were no discussions of property confiscation or some of the topics that get people's hackles up. Rather, there was recognition of a need for a resource to help law enforcement prepare, and to make certain that law enforcement wasn't simply handed a plan devised by [public health, politicians and] others, and told to 'implement it'. That sort of planning without involvement of the stakeholders would be a plan without a prayer.
We discussed, in general principles, some of the concepts that were so well written into the Citizen's guide, such as : |
| DemFromCT :: A Meeting With Police Executives |
Overview
• Communities will be affected simultaneously
• At least 30% of the overall population will become infected
• Absenteeism is expected to be upward of 50%
• A pandemic is likely to last for 12 to 18 months
• Communities could be affected by several waves lasting 6 to 8 weeks each
• Vaccines and antiviral drugs for pandemic influenza will be in short supply, may be of limited effectiveness, and will likely not be available to most communities
• Most of the ill may wish to seek medical care
• All healthcare systems will be overwhelmed
• Health facilities are unlikely to be available to most, and may be inadvisable to enter owing to
increased chances of exposure to the virus
• People and communities will likely be on their own without the help of mutual aid from other communities, hospitals, or other public services While my contributions were modest (at best), I was also made aware of other resources which I have added to the wiki legal page such as Preparing the Justice System for a Pandemic Influenza and Other Public Health Emergencies from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. I was pleased to see something from Corrections! The link isn't working to day, but there's apparently a National Institute of Corrections Pandemic Preparedness Web Page, which didn't exist some months ago.
All in all, I take this as a signal that planning continues beyond just 'talk', and though the planning process seems as slow as molasses in January (I was caught in a molasses spill in Cambridge, MA in the 70's, and fully understand the phrase), as Galileo said, "and yet it moves". |
|
|
