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2007-02-07 Home Front: WoT

U.S. companies prepare for bird flu pandemic

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Posted by Steve White 2007-02-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 A lot of common sense thought has gone into protecting trucking in the US. Many trucks now are "sleepers" which have beds for the drivers in the back of the cab.

Filling stations can be made "credit card only", and by monitoring truck stops, you can keep the human contact to a minimum, lowering chances of infection.

It might even be a good idea to set up a national "I'm sick" hot line. Encourage people to call in as soon as they start showing symptoms, in exchange for information and assistance.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-02-07 00:19|| 2007-02-07 00:19|| Front Page Top

#2 Every federal govt agency is drawing up pandemic flu "continuity of operations" plans. Isn't unique to business.

Posted by gummie 2007-02-07 06:03|| 2007-02-07 06:03|| Front Page Top

#3 A-tish-oo !
*sniffle* *sneeze* *cough*

Posted by MacNails 2007-02-07 06:54|| 2007-02-07 06:54|| Front Page Top

#4 How about the national " I'll be Dead in no time" hotline... it's an incurable disease folks, remember

Posted by Spaviger Flesh5959 2007-02-07 10:29|| 2007-02-07 10:29|| Front Page Top

#5 Spaviger Flesh5959: Well, right now you either die, or you have serious lung damage. Ordinarily, this would mean if you could get a call in to emergency services, they might be able to save you.

However, because the US has almost no extra ventilators then we use during a normal flu season, a lot of people who would have survived will suffocate, raising mortality strongly.

I still think that the US will pull through with some strong common sense innovation to minimize casualties, except in places where local and State government is ineffectual (read "Democrat"); like New Orleans and Louisiana were for decades before Katrina.

So far, I have thought up three ideas that I think would be easy, cheap and effective ways of controlling Avian flu:

1) Cities setting up phone banks to automatically call every residence in the city with information and to ask if they need assistance. This would be a godsend, and would force multiply emergency services. Volunteers could go house-to-house for people who don't answer (like in the old days.)

2) Businesses could have large bottles of hand sanitizer and courtesy loop masks at their main entrances. This would help keep their employees and customers healthy and their merchandise from getting contaminated. (Already some grocery stores have grocery cart handle wipes available along with free hand sanitizer at checkouts.)

3) This new idea, a federal "I'm sick" hot line would be an incredible advance in epidemology, in actually *seeing* where the disease is, which is light years ahead of any statistical projection or official medical reporting. This would focus and concentrate response at all levels.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-02-07 11:17|| 2007-02-07 11:17|| Front Page Top

#6 25-50% mortality in the current version, hard to tell what it will be in a human-to-human mutation. The issue is how fast it spreads, before symptoms are obvious.

COOP (Continuity of Operations Plans) typically align activities with the CDC's 6 stages. Stage 0 = before H2H xmission. Stage 1 = some H2H xmission, which (should) trigger staging of food, emergency supplies, initial prevention/"restriction of spread" activities and opening emergency ops centers. Plus designating alternates for decision making and key tasks, so that important functions go as smoothly as possible if/as people are unable to be at work due to their own illness, kids at home, etc.

Stage 2 = it's here among us, at which point things like closing schools go into effect, along with setting up various levels of quarantine and medical centers for expected overflow from hospitals. Expect govt agencies to have id'd mission-critical employees who may be asked (and at later stages might be required, if only by movement restrictions) to sleep etc. at work.

The rest of the stages get a lot more tough. How do you handle thousands of infectious corpses quickly, to prevent transmission? Do you burn them? Bury them in mass graves for later exhumation and reburial by loved ones? Worry about that when / if 25% of the country dies?

Another issue: lots of these plans assume the Internet will be available for telecommuting. I suspect that for various reasons that's an iffy assumption.

Posted by occasional observer 2007-02-07 11:21|| 2007-02-07 11:21|| Front Page Top

#7 And yeah, I've worked on one of these plans.

Posted by occasional observer 2007-02-07 11:22|| 2007-02-07 11:22|| Front Page Top

#8 If it's reached the epidemic stage, product development for the new and improved laundry detergent will move down the criticality list of the researchers involved. They'll get along without the immediacy of the internet for that purpose. But I imagine the military's net will have better survivability, surely?

My vote, for what it's worth re: infectious corpses: burn them, if sufficient facilities exist, otherwise mass graves with the bodies sealed in plastic to prevent decomposition products from seeping into the groundwater... then burnt later. No need to restart the infection cycle by letting an over-sentimental relative get infected from the remains of the corpse. I apologize if that seems cold blooded.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-07 11:46|| 2007-02-07 11:46|| Front Page Top

#9 Depends on which military network you have in mind, tw. A lot of DOD day to day stuff is done using virtual private network tunneling over the standard public internet. And more to the point, the civilian employees at DOD won't have access to any other options from home.

Posted by occasional observer 2007-02-07 11:52|| 2007-02-07 11:52|| Front Page Top

#10 Nothing specific I'm afraid, occasional observer, merely assumption. What I know about matters military I've learnt here -- I'm just a little civilian housewife (stop snickering, Frank G!) with no outside connections to the military besides a friendship with the former commander of the local VFW post, and he gallantly shelters me from anything that I might find distressing.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-07 12:10|| 2007-02-07 12:10|| Front Page Top

#11 "Infectious corpses" are not a problem, except for the smell. This fake issue is like a zombie, it shows up every time many people die at once. Is there any evidence of anyone catching influenza from a corpse? Disposing of the dead with decency relates more to the survivors' self-esteem and mental health.
Part of the issue is how fast the infection spreads & whether or not people without symptoms are socially active & casually spreading the virus. The other part is how lethal the virus is. If 50% of the population gets it, and 50% die, that's 25% of everyone. Civilization will take a pause if/when that happens. I hope key organizations are cross-training their people to fill in when essential personnel die off.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-02-07 14:15|| 2007-02-07 14:15|| Front Page Top

#12 Think worst case for personal protection and you will still fall short.
example: fresh water useage for typical natural disasters is 1 gal/person/day. If you have to do extra cleaning / laundernig of clothing /bedding for those sick in your household, that requirement is way short. For 2 of us for 3 weeks, I am estimating 100 gallons.
Also not counting on electrical grid staying up (their staff isn't immune) so cannot count on pumps for the water, lights, heat, refigeration. plan on a lot of Spam, peanut butter, wood stove cooked meals, assuming enough strength to fire up the thing.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-02-07 15:08|| 2007-02-07 15:08|| Front Page Top

#13 AH9418, disposal of corpses may seem unimportant, but there are twokinds of issues involved. First, questions of hygeine (and it's not just viruses but for instance bacteria getting into the water supply, rats being attracted to piles of bodies out on the soccer fields etc.

Second issue is legal and / or the ability of authorities to get compliance with tough measures. What is NOT needed during a pandemic is for various agencies to be deciding these issues on the fly. Hence the plans, which get at least a quick read from legal counsel to ensure that the local govt, or military base commander, or whomever can do what they are planning to do if need be.

Case example of how NOT to do it: Katrina

Posted by Glonter Unutch7517 2007-02-07 15:57|| 2007-02-07 15:57|| Front Page Top

#14 The good news is that it'll put off peak oil for another couple of years.

Posted by Shipman 2007-02-07 18:31|| 2007-02-07 18:31|| Front Page Top

#15 The good news is that it'll put off (the effects of) peak oil for another couple of years.

Posted by Shipman 2007-02-07 18:32|| 2007-02-07 18:32|| Front Page Top

#16 The worst case scenario will result in the end of man-made global warming.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-02-07 20:12|| 2007-02-07 20:12|| Front Page Top

#17 *hides snicker*

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-02-07 21:55|| 2007-02-07 21:55|| Front Page Top

#18 :-D

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-07 22:13|| 2007-02-07 22:13|| Front Page Top

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