One school of thought in BC says you “plan for the worst and hope for the best”. Sometimes that makes us like “Chicken Little” – we run around warning against the sky falling.
That is pretty much what happened with Y2K – often driven by consultants who had not worked in BC before or since. Nothing happened – it doesn’t matter why it didn’t happen.
Anybody remember 2000/2001? You could not get $1 to spend on BC. At least not till September ’01.
Have we done the same with Pandemic Planning?
I have honestly (meaning I honestly believed what I was saying) presented Pandemic as an extreme risk. But it didnt happen at the level of severity predicted. We have been in global Pandemic for how many months?
Anybody invoked any of the plans they devised pre-the H1N1 outbreak?
Here in Australia, everybody is able to get a FREE vaccination against H1N1 (Swine Flu). Very few people are taking up the offer – there is no belief in the risk.
Here is a presentation I prepared a few years back, oriented at the risks around H5N1 (Avian Flu). At the time I thought this a real risk – today H5N1 is probably a greater risk than H1N1, it will probably be a more extreme form of the flu. Let me restate – there is a current risk, it is perhaps not as extreme as we have made out.
I offer this simply as an example of how our thinking can, and should, evolve over time – as we develop improved “situational awareness”.
I have always been of the view that the greatest risk from Pandemic Influenza will come in the Northern Hemisphere flu season. That would be the next few weeks I assume. It could be really extreme if the virus morphs with an Avian variant.
What preparations is your enterprise making for the current (and next) wave of Pandemic Influenza?
Are you planning for an extreme impact, or a similar impact to the first H1N1 wave?
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