Hawaii - TV Pandemic Awareness Campaign

[sharon sanders]

hat tip Fla Medic -

Hawaii: Taking The Pandemic Issue To The People



# 3012


Tonight, and on the following two Wednesday nights, NBC affiliate KHNL-8 TV will bring a one-hour panel discussion to the residents of Hawaii on the dangers of a pandemic and the need to prioritize any vaccine that might be available.

These show will air between 8pm-9pm. That’s right. Prime Time.

And for those not in Hawaii – the show will be streamed live online at WWW.KHNL.COM. Of course, the airtime will be in the middle of the night for those of us on the mainland.

Here is the schedule of airdates:

Vaccine: Surviving Hawaii's Next Pandemic

News Links

Preparing Hawaii for the next pandemic

Three one-hour panel discussions airing live on KHNL NBC 8 and live streaming on KHNL.com.
First program: Wednesday, April 15 8:00 PM HST on KHNL NBC 8 rebroadcast on Sunday on K5 The Home Team on Sunday, April 19 at 6:00 PM HST.

Second program: Wednesday, April 22 8:00 PM HST on KHNL NBC 8 rebroadcast on Sunday on K5 The Home Team on Sunday, April 26 at 6:00 PM HST.

Third program: Wednesday, April 29 8:00 PM HST on KHNL NBC 8 rebroadcast on Sunday on K5 The Home Team on Sunday, May 3 at 6:00 PM HST.

Viewers will be able to call in or email questions or comments.

​

This is just the start of a public awareness campaign kicking off in the island state of Hawaii where emergency officials are keenly aware of just how vulnerable their population could be in a pandemic.

The 1.2 million residents of Hawaii lie at the crossroads of the Pacific. Honolulu International Airport handles in excess of 21 million air travelers a year, with many travelers arriving each day from countries currently dealing with the H5N1 virus.

During a prolonged pandemic, Hawaii could also find itself at the end of a very long, and potentially broken, supply chain.

KHNL reports on the upcoming broadcasts with this article. If you travel to their webpage, you’ll find a video report as well.

Preparing Hawaii for the next pandemic
Posted: April 15, 2009 01:02 AM

By Mari-Ela David
HONOLULU (KHNL) - Several thousand people in Hawaii died from the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918, and the islands saw even more deaths in the 1957 and 1968 pandemics.

When the next one hits, who should be the first to get a vaccine? Children? Mothers? The elderly?
The Department of Health wants the public's opinion.

<SNIP>

"Hawaii is in the crossroads. We are the gateway to the Asian countries," said Nerurkar.

Right now, the virus hasn't transformed where it can be passed from human to human, but when it does, and spreads worldwide you have a pandemic.

In Honolulu?

"We'll have a pandemic situation arising in a matter of days. That fast because once the virus comes in here by the time you know the virus is here, it's already infecting people," said Nerurkar.
(Continue . . .)

​

And coming in Mid-May, something completely different.

An online pandemic simulation-role playing game called Coral Cross.

​

The website isn’t `live’ yet, but a few details are emerging on this `playable scenario’ that has been developed by the Hawaii State Department of Health and the Hawaii Research Center For Future Studies.


Here is a screen-shot of the Coral Cross website.

http://www.coralcross.org/


ARGNET, the Alternate Reality Gaming Network, has a preview of this `game’ on their website.

Coral Cross: Pandemic Preparedness from the Hawaii Department of Health

April 12, 2009 · By Michael Andersen
(excerpt)

The game is scheduled to launch during the second half of May, with each day representing one month of game time. While anyone can play, the game’s core audience will be located in Hawaii, particularly the island of Oahu. As Stuart Candy, researcher at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, explains,

First, we can make use of the limited geography — a captive audience, if you like — by using more real-life elements to augment the storytelling. Second, as a member of our design team observed, the fact that we’re tackling a global topic, pandemic flu, with a local tilt, not only gives it an interesting flavour, but it also helps the scenario. Instead of trying to evoke every last thing about how the world could transform as a result of a deadly disease sweeping across it, the island acts as a sort of microcosm in which, no matter where they’re from, people will be able to see what’s at stake more clearly and concretely, in particular how lives and communities are affected.

By restricting the geographic field of gameplay to a limited area, Coral Cross will hopefully be able to address the impact pandemics will have on local communities and social structures while providing a truly immersive experience for the participants.


​

For more on the how the Coral Cross scenario was developed, you can go to the Hawaii Research Center For Future Studies and read about the project.

As the website informs us:

Coral Cross is free and will run in the second half of May. Anyone interested can now visit coralcross.org to sign up.

​

I’m guessing a lot of my readers will.

 

[Readymom]

Re: Hawaii - TV Pandemic Awareness Campaign

:tiphat::applause: I applaud Hawaii's efforts and encourage folks to send this video link to anyone you know and contacts you may have made. Ask them why you are NOT seeing this type of video/news coverage in YOUR area.

Each time we see a positive effort, such as this, its another chance to show our local officials that they are behind in their panflu communications. If the local officials are responding that it is not necessary to pass on the warning ... Hawaii is proving them wrong, as are a few other progressive communities like Kings County, etc.

We may be disappointed in the response of OUR local leaders, but please do not stop in trying to change that. -k

 

[Readymom]

Re: Hawaii - TV Pandemic Awareness Campaign

I've just finished watching this. It's now available here: http://tinyurl.com/cfzkft

They are recommending starting home stock pile at 3 day, when you get that go to 3 weeks and then go to 3 months.The Lt. Gov. has taken it a step further and said that Hawaii is an 'Island State', therefore folks should DOUBLE their recommendations.

" Encourage people to start out by becoming self sufficient for 3 days. When you have mastered that, for 3 weeks and when you have mastered that for 3 months. The reality is that the more that individuals are capeable of supporting and sustaining their families, the faster society can get itself collected and moving.'

-k :applause::applause:

 

[JJackson]

Re: Hawaii - TV Pandemic Awareness Campaign

Very refreshing.
The title is a bit misleading as vaccine comes up and while it is acknowledged that vaccine production can not start in a flu pandemic until after the pandemic strain emerges it then rather dodges the depressing stats concerning production and distribution capacity vs demand.

The discussion also has the usual problem of trying to talk about three different scenarios with it being a little confusing as to which is being discussed at any given moment. The three different things are 1] a severe pandemic (think 1918, SARS or H5N1 based), 2] another milder type of pandemic (think 1957, '68) or 3] another type of disaster (Tsunami, Hurricane, Earthquake). When people who know what they are talking about discuss such topics they move freely between them but I am not so sure the general public necessarily spot the switching. As an example when discussing food and water storage 3 days makes very good sense for localised problems - type 3 - where help is on its way from unaffected areas. For type 2 problems the aim is to smooth out wide area supply chain hiccups. Type 1 problems with catastrophic supply chain failure where the supplies may be for extended self sufficiency and may further need to be different in type, as well as quantity, if type 1 means utilities failure (unsafe water supply and no power for food preparation or refrigeration).

If the programs reach enough people to cause discussion or even just contemplation of the problem then it is definitely worth the effort.
Well done Hawaii.