# 1079
Despite the headline, there doesn't appear to be much in this plan to `slow a flu pandemic'. Instead, it appears to be focused more on keeping the economic wheels on the track during a pandemic.
First the article, then a discussion.
Continent-wide plan would aim to slow flu pandemic
GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
August 22, 2007 at 4:38 AM EDT
OTTAWA — Canada, the United States and Mexico would work together to slow the spread of an influenza pandemic but a new, continent-wide plan says closing borders and other highly aggressive measures may be worthless.
The North American Plan for Avian and Pandemic Influenza was presented yesterday at the end of a meeting among leaders of the three countries in Montebello, Que., and was cited as a key accomplishment of the summit.
Rather than impose strict conditions to control a long-predicted global influenza - a disease that could have found its genesis in an avian flu already detected in Asia and Europe - the plan is subordinate to domestic preparations being made within each of the three countries.
Instead, it promotes communication between health authorities across North America, as well as a flexible framework to reduce the impact of the infection. It seems aimed at keeping economic engines running.
"All countries have the sovereign right to control the movement of people and goods across their borders," says the plan. "However, in the event of a widespread pandemic, highly restrictive measures to control the movement of people and goods might initially delay but would not stop the eventual spread of a novel strain of human influenza to North America and could have significant negative social, economic and foreign policy consequences."
There will be many who will be horrified at the idea that governments, in the interest of keeping the economy running, would fail to try to do everything possible to contain the virus once it arrives on our shores.
It sounds as if the government is more than willing to trade lives for the almighty dollar.
And in a way, I suppose they are. But it isn't that simple.
If the virus is spreading around the world, trying to contain it on this continent by imposing quarantines or draconian travel restrictions would be an exercise in futility. There are simply too many avenues for it to be introduced into our society to plug them all up.
A pandemic could last a year, maybe two. Even under the best of circumstances, our economy would take a tremendous hit. Businesses would fail, jobs would be lost, and a recession or even a depression would be almost inevitable.
While there are public health officials whose job it is to try to limit the impact of the virus on the health of our nation, there are other officials whose job it is to limit other, non-medical, impacts.
That doesn't make them evil, or uncaring, or callous. It just means that their job requires that they think in different terms. They need to figure out ways to keep the power grid up, the food supply chain flowing, and solve a hundred other `non-medical' problems a pandemic might bring.
Like it or not, the economy is important to each and every one of us.
There is a tendency in this country to vilify anything to do with big business. We hate large corporations and banks. We blame them, along with the government, for the ills of the world. And many would say good riddance to bad rubbish were they all to fail in a pandemic.
Yet, should we see wholesale failures in the banking and business world, life would become far worse during, and after, a pandemic.
Food, energy, transportation, communications, and health care all depend on a working economy.
You might feel that banks or big corporations got what they deserved if they failed during a pandemic, but if your 401K retirement plan went with it, or your life savings, you might not be so gleeful.
A pandemic isn't just a public health crisis. It will affect every facet of society.
Whether the economic engine can be kept running, albeit roughly and on only a couple of cylinders, remains to be seen. Much depends on the severity of the next pandemic and the level of fear it generates among the public. High absenteeism rates for a prolonged period of time would deal the economy a devastating blow.
A pandemic is going to force our government, and governments around the world, to walk a fine line between protecting public health and keeping their economy, and society running. They will be forced to make some difficult decisions, and I've no doubt, some of them will turn out badly.
It just isn't possible to tell everyone to go home, and to lock their doors, and not come out until the pandemic is over. Someone has to run the power plants, staff the hospitals, process and deliver food, refine the gasoline, or patrol the streets at night.
Ramboesque survivalist fantasies aside, we will need to find ways to keep society functioning, and at least a skeleton crew working, during a pandemic. And that means some people will have to risk being exposed to the virus.
Whether this continent-wide flu plan will end up being worth the paper it's printed on remains to be seen. The details haven't been worked out yet. Hopefully the H5N1 virus will cooperate and give the planners another year to work out the `protocols'.
