What kind of changes are expected once the Pandemic is called?

[grandmother stonecoat]

I have been around for years and read most of the flu boards and now we have a pandemic, and in days it will be actually called by WHO. So, my question is this; what changes in day to day life can we expect to see once the call is made? What restrictions, panics, shortages, etc are expected with the declaration if any? Thanks.
Grandmother Stonecoat

 

[The Mountains Voice]

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

I have been around for years and read most of the flu boards and now we have a pandemic, and in days it will be actually called by WHO. So, my question is this; what changes in day to day life can we expect to see once the call is made? What restrictions, panics, shortages, etc are expected with the declaration if any? Thanks.
Grandmother Stonecoat

The immediate change will be that this takes a more forefront position in the news media. My guess is that national governments will issue statements of calm & guidance (hopefully something more comprehensive than "wash your hands").

My guess is that the general public might start getting a bit more caught up with the facts. Knee jerk panic at local levels will most likely result in a lot of closures for summer camps, daycares etc (as local infections are reported)... similar to what we saw in the 1st wave news media reporting.

If there are any news media people out there reading - my suggestion is to focus on FACTS, and non-panicy PREPAREDNESS ISSUES. Perhaps start talking about social side-effects that might occur if this continues to gain momentum.

 

[jeanne]

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

do you mean that basically they'll carry on as usual? i thought it meant border closures and cancellation of public events.

 

[The Mountains Voice]

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

do you mean that basically they'll carry on as usual? i thought it meant border closures and cancellation of public events.

Someone correct me if I am wrong - but I believe that the primary legal / enforcement aspect of going to Level 6 is that some countries have it built into their Pandemic Plans (and supporting laws) that at Level 6 - simpler legal authority to implement border closures, cancel public events, etc kicks in. I do not believe it MANDATES such things - it just provides the legal trigger to do those things. I think it also activates certain state & local authority POSIBILITIES as well (in the U.S).

This is a very incomplete summary. Many nation's have multi-hundred page plans, and all the nation's have different plans - so you would have to look up your specific countries plan to know for sure exactly what could happen. But I think the above paragraph is the gist of the legal change. I still think that the immediate results will be more along the lines of generic official calming statements, and increased news media scrutiny that drives public responses.

IF they call a Level 6 - then for me it's a very important marker. What I will be watching for is how they explain it. To what degree they release the full possible scope, and how much focus they put on preparation. I think how governments & officials deal with this next crossroads is going to be very telling as to how they will deal with future progression.

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

Re: What changes once the Pandemic is called

What kind of changes are expected once the Pandemic is called?

For those of you who have followed all of the threads and posts here at FT you know that the pandemic is already in full force and has been since early May when human to human transmission occurred in more than one WHO region. Hopefully, you have all made appropriate preparations in anticipation of the public announcement by WHO. So for those of you who have properly prepared, nothing will change.

For the rest of the world, the immediate response will be largely dependent on how the elevation to level 6 is reported in the news media and what kind of slant they put on the back story.

 

[colormyquilt]

Re: What kind of changes are expected once the Pandemic is called?

Good question, Grandmother Stonecoat. :tiphat:

Thanks, Laidback, for the response.

I don't know I will become any more vigilant. My focus may change slightly.

There will be those who have readied their homes, their families. There will be those who will be new to "preparedness."
For a Just In Time society, shortages will be anything but the exception. For those who live in less advantageous environs, shortages may prove montrous.

There is so much more we do not know about this virus...it has proven it has a will of it's own- and will go where it pleases. It is truly amazing seeing how much it has done in a very short time frame.

In early to mid-April, I began planting my flower and vegetable garden. I have watched it grow. I have watched the greenness fill out the garden and the flowers as they bloom. I have also watched the virus grow. And I know I have no better perception of how my garden may look in a month, in two months, than I have as to how this virus may look as it grows and changes over the next week, month, two months.

Today, I am extremely thankful.

 

[Sunshine123]

Re: What kind of changes are expected once the Pandemic is called?

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1089929.html

AIRPORTS
MIA may be a quarantine site in pandemic
In the event of a pandemic, flights would be rerouted to Miami International Airport and 18 other major U.S. airports, according to plans by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BY MICHAEL TURNBELL AND SCOTT POWERS
Sun Sentinel

As the swine flu scare fades, Miami International Airport and 18 other major American airports have been lined up to handle a future pandemic that could require them to quarantine international flights.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has set up stand-by quarantine/screening facilities at the 19 airports to which all flights from affected countries would be diverted.

While MIA is among them, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which handles about 3 million international passengers a year, is not.

That means that in the event of the highest-level alert, all flights to Fort Lauderdale from pandemic-affected countries could be rerouted to Miami, Atlanta, Houston or somewhere else.

Nationally, airline and airport lobbyists predict chaos, saying there is no way the air-traffic system can handle such extensive rerouting.

Now, new proposals are emerging in Washington, including one that would designate Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Orlando International and four other major airports as potential second-tier quarantine sites. Palm Beach International Airport is not among the six.

`HUGE INCONVENIENCE'

Funneling all of Fort Lauderdale's international flights to Miami would be a ''logistical nightmare,'' said Michael Nonnemacher, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood's director of operations.

''It would be huge impact to the carriers and a huge inconvenience to the passengers,'' Nonnemacher said.

Local officials say they understand the CDC will approve the new designations only if the airports pay for the quarantine facilities themselves.

The CDC would pay for the quarantine stations at the 19 primary airports.

The facilities are not cheap. A 2008 study by the Federal Aviation Administration concluded that setting aside space for health screenings and a quarantine of up to 200 people could cost $15,000 a month, with costs of an actual quarantine running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood officials began developing a plan to handle quarantined passengers and flights several years ago during the bird flu scare. It calls for erecting air-conditioned tents on the runway ramps to screen or quarantine passengers before they enter the terminal.

''It would slow things down, but we would still be able to operate as an international port,'' Nonnemacher said.

QUESTIONS RAISED

Some questions remained unanswered, such as how screening for a quarantine center would be staffed or where the money and public health resources would come from. Quarantined passengers might have to remain for days to show they are not infectious.

Airport spokesman Greg Meyer said any procedures put into place to screen passengers at Fort Lauderdale would be a collaboration between the airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the SARS pandemic threat of 2003, the Bush administration decided to update the nation's 1970s-era plans for screening and quarantining foreign visitors should a global health threat emerge.

The new federal strategy, which emerged in 2007, expanded the number of CDC-sponsored quarantine stations to 20, up from eight. Nineteen are at airports; one, in El Paso, Texas, is at a land-border center.

The plan called for all flights from countries identified by the World Health Organization as pandemic countries to be diverted to the 19 airports.

However, the Air Transit Association, the trade group for airlines, and the Airports Council International-North America, the major trade group for airports, jointly asked the Obama Administration in late March to reconsider the strategy.

In addition to screening potentially tens of thousands of passengers, the airports would then have to put cleared passengers onto flights to their intended destinations.

DELAYS ANTICIPATED

Flights would back up and delays would spread everywhere, predicted Katherine Andrus, assistant general counsel for the Air Transit Association.

''It would be like a very, very bad snowstorm hitting all airports with international arrivals at the same time,'' she said.

 

[Lizw]

Re: What kind of changes are expected once the Pandemic is called?

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1089929.html

AIRPORTS
MIA may be a quarantine site in pandemic
In the event of a pandemic, flights would be rerouted to Miami International Airport and 18 other major U.S. airports, according to plans by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is my personal opinion, and I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but I don't think there is much possibility of this scenario taking place, unless people start dropping like flies. There is too much commercial pressure to keep planes and people moving. This is one of those ideas that sounded good until people started asking for details, and then it started to fall apart. What about people in quarantine, just for example? Who is going to house them, and who is going to pay for it? I don't see how it can possibly be managed unless all the affected parties agreed to work together, and that's unlikely. IMHO.