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The new update is out. The link is: http:\\www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/pdf/panflureport3.pdf
This is an excerpt from the last page. What is FT's take on this? This seems odd.
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Communications
A Harvard School of Public Health survey released at the workshop explored potential community and personal impacts. The encouraging news was that a large majority of people surveyed said they would follow public health recommendations even if doing that requires major changes in their lives. Almost all would stay away from other people if they were infected with a pandemic flu; 85% said they would isolate the entire family if any one member became ill.
But while the survey revealed resolution, it also exposed vulnerabilities. Almost one in four (24%) said they would have no one to care for them if they were sick at home. Roughly the same number (26%) said they would experience severe financial problems if they missed even seven to ten days of work, and a majority (57%) said they would be in financial trouble if they missed one month of work.
Workshop participants were asked to assess how well existing computer models can predict the effectiveness of various community-containment procedures. They also examined how well such interventions worked during previous disease outbreaks, and discussed the potential consequences of community containment in a pandemic.
In early 2007, a team of pandemic flu experts and communicators will tell meetings
of senior news executives that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 has been identified in a village overseas. Later in the day, they will be told the disease has spread across a region overseas. And finally, they will be told that human cases have been reported in the United States.
The announcements will be fake, part of an exercise to test how the media ? and the experts ? will respond should the day come when similar announcements have to be made for real. The two sides will work through the challenges of getting
and reporting timely, accurate information.
One challenge is how to keep the public informed, without undue alarm, in situations where there is high interest and little new information, situations that could develop, for instance, while waiting for the results of confirmatory testing. The exercise will be repeated in six other cities, reaching national, regional, Hispanic and African-American media."
This is an excerpt from the last page. What is FT's take on this? This seems odd.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Communications
A Harvard School of Public Health survey released at the workshop explored potential community and personal impacts. The encouraging news was that a large majority of people surveyed said they would follow public health recommendations even if doing that requires major changes in their lives. Almost all would stay away from other people if they were infected with a pandemic flu; 85% said they would isolate the entire family if any one member became ill.
But while the survey revealed resolution, it also exposed vulnerabilities. Almost one in four (24%) said they would have no one to care for them if they were sick at home. Roughly the same number (26%) said they would experience severe financial problems if they missed even seven to ten days of work, and a majority (57%) said they would be in financial trouble if they missed one month of work.
Workshop participants were asked to assess how well existing computer models can predict the effectiveness of various community-containment procedures. They also examined how well such interventions worked during previous disease outbreaks, and discussed the potential consequences of community containment in a pandemic.
In early 2007, a team of pandemic flu experts and communicators will tell meetings
of senior news executives that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 has been identified in a village overseas. Later in the day, they will be told the disease has spread across a region overseas. And finally, they will be told that human cases have been reported in the United States.
The announcements will be fake, part of an exercise to test how the media ? and the experts ? will respond should the day come when similar announcements have to be made for real. The two sides will work through the challenges of getting
and reporting timely, accurate information.
One challenge is how to keep the public informed, without undue alarm, in situations where there is high interest and little new information, situations that could develop, for instance, while waiting for the results of confirmatory testing. The exercise will be repeated in six other cities, reaching national, regional, Hispanic and African-American media."
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