YOYO

#186


Increasingly, the term YOYO is coming into popular use in the Avian Flu world. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, it stands for You’re On Your Own.


At first blush, this sounds both cruel and unthinkable. How could the government abandon its people in a pandemic? Leave them to their own devices in the midst of a crisis?


Quite simply, they wouldn’t. Not if there were any alternative. The backlash, politically, would be enormous.


But we hear every day from Mike Leavitt, Secretary of HHS, not to expect the Federal Government to come to our rescue during a pandemic. Not to plan on having FEMA show up with pallets of drinking water and MRE’s for distribution in our neighborhoods. And that cities cannot expect an influx of National Guard troops to keep order.


It will be, in the words of Mr. Leavitt, as if 1000 Katrina’s happened simultaneously, and the federal government would be powerless to help. They will be desperately shorthanded, and will have their plates full maintaining national security, and trying to keep the big items, like the power grid, vaccine development, and Internet up and running.


The Federal Pandemic plan lays the responsibility of local management squarely on the shoulders of city and state governments, and those entities generally admit they are not equipped to handle it. They are under funded and woefully understaffed.


It seems, the answer to the question of who will be in charge during a pandemic is: Everyone.


And yet, no one.


The creeping reality is that YOYO is for real, and will be implemented at all levels, from the individual family unit on up through the city, state, and federal governments.


It is a sobering reality, but the truth is, no government, no entity can protect the masses during a pandemic. The resources and the manpower simply aren’t there.


Each of us will have to take personal responsibility for our own welfare during a pandemic.


Now, that is not to say we must all be totally self-sufficient: an island unto ourselves. That is an impossibility.


So we are left with two truths, and only one solution. We can’t count on the government to protect and care for us during a pandemic, nor can we do it all by ourselves.


The only remaining recourse is for individuals, neighborhoods, and communities to band together and find local solutions.


For many, it is an unthinkable option. We’ve grown used to being isolated from our communities, and have grown distrustful of our fellow man. We eye our neighbors with suspicion, and often rightfully so. There will be a large adjustment factor early on in a pandemic.


Undoubtedly there will be some places where it simply won’t work. The divides are too deep to allow cooperation, no matter how dire the circumstances. Those places will succumb to the pandemic, or to the collateral damage it brings.


Other places will find ways to join together, to combine resources, and to prevail. We see it here in Florida in the aftermath of hurricanes; neighbors showing up with chainsaws to clear the city streets of fallen limbs, citizens taking in the evacuees, and volunteer organizations handing out water, food, and ice.


It can and does work.


And in the end, it may be our only salvation.