# 2414
If you work in the IT (Information Technology) world, then Computerworld is probably on your daily reading list. Back, when I worked in IT (the 1980's!), it only came as a weekly periodical.
Today, Computerworld has a splendid web presence.
Patrick Thibodeau writes feature articles, and blogs for Computerworld, and has focused often on pandemic and disaster preparedness within the IT sector.
Some of his articles that I've highlighted in the past include:
ComputerWorld: New Strategies For New Disasters
IT Managers Still Preparing For A Pandemic
Financial Industry Prepares For Massive Drill
IT Pandemic Planning A Mixed Bag
Today, in the face of massive layoffs on Wall Street, Patrick wonders how this will affect their pandemic and other disaster preparedness.
A good question.
D.C.
October 24, 2008 - 11:23 A.M.
Wall Street’s double calamity
With Wall Street layoffs on track to surpass 200,000, it may be worth asking: How many of the newly unemployed were involved in pandemic planning?
I can’t answer that question. But I’ll bet that consolidations, reorganizations and cutbacks have scrambled pandemic planning in financial services.
The risk remains. The United Nations released this week an updated report on pandemic planning, “Fourth Global Progress Report on Responses to Avian Influenza and State of Pandemic Readiness.” [105-page pdf here]
Bottom line: Dr. David Nabarro, United Nations System Influenza Coordinator, said the threat of an influenza pandemic was still the same as it was three or four years ago. And there still remains a lot of work to do on planning.
Financial services firms in the U.S. have developed plans to deal with a pandemic, but that work was done last year, during happier times. The new administration will have to find out how much of that work remains intact.
