# 1927
Today the State of Florida's Agriculture Department released an easy to read, 28 page, pandemic planning toolkit for businesses involved in the production, delivery, or sale of food.
While produced for the food and agriculture sector, this guide would serve any business as a reasonable starting point for creating a pandemic plan.
The PDF document can be downloaded HERE.
The State of Florida's Agriculture Department's Press release follows, and then I'll have comments about the toolkit.
Department Press Release
04-28-2008
Terence McElroy
(850) 488-3022
mcelrot@doacs.state.fl.us
Bronson Unveils Pandemic Flu Planning Kit For Businesses
Involved In The Production, Delivery Or Sale Of Food
TALLAHASSEE – Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson today announced that his department has developed a planning guide to assist small agribusinesses prepare for and respond to a pandemic influenza outbreak.
Called the “Pandemic Influenza Agriculture Planning Tool Kit,” the 28-page guide walks business owners through various steps in planning and responding to such an outbreak, including accounting for the whereabouts of employees, storing emergency supplies and establishing communications with key contacts during the emergency. It can be accessed on the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ website at www.doacs.state.fl.us.
“It is vital that businesses, especially ones involved in the production or delivery of food, have a plan so they can continue operating and feeding our citizens during a pandemic flu outbreak or an emergency of any kind,” Bronson said. “We developed this guidebook because it occurred to us at recent workshops that most small agribusinesses lack the financial resources or personnel to develop preparedness plans of their own despite the critical role they play in the production and delivery of our food supply.”
Bronson said the guidebook can be altered or tailored to address the needs of most agricultural operations and encourages such businesses to review the tool kit.
Pandemic influenza is a global disease outbreak in which a new influenza virus emerges - a virus against which people have little, if any, immunity and one for which there is no vaccine. The disease spreads easily from person to person, causing serious illnesses, and can quickly move across an entire country or continent.
Such a disease would cause mass absenteeism, put a major strain on a nation’s health care system and disrupt untold vital services
This toolkit is an excellent `first exposure' to pandemic planning for most small to medium sized businesses. It works very hard not to overwhelm or frighten its intended audience, and yet it does hit the highlights of the things that most businesses need to be considering in a pandemic plan.
In fairness, it does gloss over some of the `worst case scenarios' by simply stating that we can't know in advance how bad the next pandemic will be. Here is how they address the issue.
The number of hospitalizations and deaths will depend on the virulence of the pandemic virus. Estimates differ about ten-fold between more and less severe scenarios. Per HHS planning guidance, Florida is planning for a severe influenza pandemic similar to 1918, as compared to a moderate pandemic similar to 1957, 1968. Either one could happen.
Risk groups for severe and fatal infection cannot be predicted with certainty but are likely to include infants, elderly, pregnant woman, and persons with chronic medical conditions.
The toolkit, really a series of checklists, gives individuals and businesses a starting point to begin organizing their pandemic plans.
As an example, for individuals, here is the advice they give to prepare for a pandemic:
- Store a supply of water and food. During a pandemic, if you cannot get to a store, or if stores are out of supplies, it will be important for you to have extra supplies on hand. This can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters (2-3 weeks is recommended).
- Periodically check your regular prescription drugs to ensure a continuous supply in your home.
- Have any nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand, including pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines, fluids with electrolytes, and vitamins (30-day supply is recommended).
- Talk with family members and loved ones about how they would be cared for if they got sick, or what will be needed to care for them in your home.
- Volunteer with local groups to prepare and assist with emergency response.
- Get involved in your community as it works to prepare for an influenza pandemic.
The toolkit then gives a very basic checklist of the types of food, and medical supplies, to stockpile. No doubt most people will need to augment these checklists, but they provide a good starting point.
The next section covers planning for a pandemic's impact on your business. This area offers such sage advice as:
- Identify a pandemic coordinator and/or team with defined roles and responsibilities for preparedness and response planning. The planning process should include input from labor representatives.
- Identify essential employees and other critical inputs (e.g., raw materials, suppliers, sub-contractor services/products, and logistics) required to maintain business operations by location and function during a pandemic.
Train and prepare ancillary workforce (e.g., contractors, employees in other job titles/descriptions, retirees).
Cross-train your employees. Figure out what jobs need to be trained ahead of time and jobs that can be trained at the time, time critical jobs, i.e. specialty crop harvesting, coordination with other agribusinesse at harvest time.
Again, not rocket science, but crucial steps that most businesses have yet to undertake.
The toolkits go on to cover the impact of a pandemic on employees and customers, and what policies a business may need to establish for operating during a pandemic.
The last ten pages are basically a primer on pandemics, and how to protect yourself and others from infection. Covering your cough, washing your hands, staying home when you are sick, and social distancing.
The value of this toolkit is that it serves as an easy introduction to pandemic planning. It won't frighten the reader unduly, but it should impress upon most that planning is essential. Since it carries the seal of approval of the State of Florida's Agriculture Commission, it should carry some weight in the business community.
For most businesses, this is a good starting point.
