Tuesday, September 10, 2024

#Natlprep: Personal Pandemic Preparedness

Credit CDC
 

Note: This is the 10th day of National Preparedness Month. Follow this year’s campaign on Twitter by searching for the #NatlPrep #BeReady or #PrepMonth hashtags.

This month, as part of NPM24, I’ll be rerunning some updated preparedness essays, along with some new ones.

#18,288

In the months prior to the 2019 outbreak of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan China - which would spark the deadliest pandemic in 100 years - our `threats board' was pretty quiet.  Avian flu - in Asia (H7N9) and in Europe (H5N8) - had both markedly receded, and a lot of our attention was focused on agricultural diseases (e.g. African Swine Fever), not zoonotic threats. 

Despite this lull, there was still a lot of emphasis on pandemic preparedness in 2019, including. 

  • In August of 2019, in WHO: Survey Of Pandemic Preparedness In Member States, we saw the dismal results of a two-year survey of global pandemic preparedness, where just over half (n=104, or 54%) of member states responded. And of those, just 92 stated they had a national pandemic plan. Nearly half (48%) of those plans were created prior to the 2009 pandemic, and have not been updated since. 
  • In September, we looked at a WHO/World Bank GPMB Pandemic Report : `A World At Risk, which warned that `. . . an outbreak equivalent to the 1918 influenza pandemic could kill an estimated 50 to 80 million people, spreading around the world in less than 36 hours and wiping out nearly five percent of the global economy.'
Recap Video
The CDC had - over the previous decade - published dozens of personal pandemic preparedness documents, including the following 16-page Household Pandemic Planning guide, which emphasized the use of NPIs - or Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions - during a pandemic.


Sadly, many of the older CDC pandemic guidance documents now have broken links, have been `retired', and can only be found in the https://stacks.cdc.gov/ archive. While Ready.gov provides a rudimentary pandemic preparedness section, the robust guidance that was once available to the public is now very hard to find. 

For whatever reason - now that the number of pandemic threats has arguably grown - we seem less inclined to talk about pandemic preparedness. 
 
Admittedly, we could be years away from the next pandemic. HPAI H5 could fizzle, and COVID's impact could continue to diminish over time.  But, even so, COVID taught us how easily we can be blindsided by an emerging virus that isn't even on our radar. 

We don't tell people who live on the coast, or those who live in earthquake zones, not to prepare just because statistically, there's a good chance they won't get hit this year.  And we shouldn't treat personal pandemic preparedness any differently. 

While you and I can't do much about the readiness of our local, state, or federal government - much less that of other countries - we can take steps to prepare our homes, our businesses and our communities.

And most of those preparations would be equally useful in any other emergency/disaster situation.  Simple things, like:
  • Having enough food and water stockpiled for 10 to 14 days
A `Flu Buddy’ is simply someone you can call if you get sick, who will then check on you every day (by phone, social media, or in person), make sure you have the food and medicines you need (including fetching prescriptions if appropriate), help care for you if needed, and who can call for medical help if your condition deteriorates.
Those people who care for others, like single parents, also need to consider who will take care of their dependents if they are sick.
Most of these preparations would serve you and your family well in any emergency, but during a pandemic could be lifesaving.  While the following quote is nearly 20 years old, it is just as true today as it was in 2006:
“Everything you say in advance of a pandemic seems alarmist.  Anything you’ve done after it starts is inadequate." - Michael Leavitt,  Former Secretary of HHS


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