If you wonder why people think you're nuts, and you can't get friends and family to prepare, just look at the headline below. 

Indiana is Prepared.  They're taking all steps they can think of to be ready for a pandemic.

Yeah. Right.


Indiana prepared in case of bird flu pandemic

Indiana - If there's ever an outbreak of bird flu in humans, Indiana wants to be prepared.

Governor Daniels announced Friday that the state has developed statewide and county-level emergency plans.

Experts say the virus doesn't easily infect people, but there's a fear that it could mutate.

Under the emergency plan, health officials say Hoosiers with bird flu symptoms could be quarantined.

Said Governor Daniels Friday, “All steps we can think of to take are being taken. And if, perish the thought, we have to implement this plan, life would be very different in Indiana, at least for a while.”

Daniels says local officials have already run through training exercises.

A bird flu summit is set for March 23rd in Indianapolis.

http://www.wndu.com/news/022006/news_47899.php


Frankly, I'm seeing a fair amount of this Happy Talk. Stories about 100% effective vaccines, and quick to manufacture. 

I guess this is news `balance'.  For every scarey story, we need a reassuring one. Just to be fair.

 

Maybe the good Governer will buy some ventilators. Indiana has 17,636 beds    1,763 ICU beds    1,763 ventilators.   Time to spend some money on supplies! and get crackin on telling people to stock up!!!! In all fairness he does seem to be a decent guy, but open up the purse strings before its to late....

Edited by AuntBones

Yeppers Medic... it looks more like a press release to me. Also some info in it from a report given to the state from the CDC in 2005.(Experts say.... that is could mutate).Things sure have changed since then...   

I do think Floridians are more likely to prepare, because of what we've been thru.

Number 1 house buying hint in florida: Look for a house with lot's of leg room in the closets. <g>

Arizona Republic on 02/08/06

State health officials release flu pandemic readiness plan

Arthur H. Rotstein
Associated Press
Feb. 8, 2006 12:00 AM TUCSON - Arizona health officials have released a revised flu pandemic readiness plan that calls on families and businesses to prepare and for hospitals to test plans for dealing with overwhelming numbers of patients.

The plan released Monday recommends that families stockpile food, water and medications to be self-sufficient at home for a period of time during an emergency, with the ability to communicate with family elsewhere.

It also offers a business checklist, such as identifying essential workers needed to keep operating and planning for impacts on employees and customers.

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The plan discusses a series of steps to identify pandemic victims and separate them from others. It also covers security, mortuary issues and providing non-hospital care.

This revision of a state plan drawn up in 2000 is "a significant advancement forward," state epidemiologist David Engelthaler said. "It includes all the existing plans and systems that have been developed for emergency response and brings them together in how we would use those capabilities during a pandemic."

The plan spans a range of actions, from a pre-pandemic alert to systems that are needed for identifying cases in Arizona.

A flu pandemic is a worldwide outbreak of influenza from a new virus distinct from past ones and capable of infecting large numbers of people because they lack natural immunity from the new virus.

Three influenza pandemics occurred in the past century. The deadliest ever recorded killed about 50 million people worldwide, including about 650,000 in the United States, during 1918-19.

Health officials are worried about the potential for such an outbreak to evolve from a virulent bird-flu strain that originated in Southeast Asia.

United Nations officials have said a worldwide pandemic is inevitable, but Arizona officials cautioned that they are not saying one would occur this year.

The new Arizona plan "follows the federal as well as the World Health Organization model system in terms of how to devise roles and responsibilities as well as when we would put the system in place," Engelthaler said.
http://tinyurl.com/dvfj9

The Arizona Pandemic Response Plan is here

http://www.azdhs.gov/pandemicflu/


BTW, years ago, I was a paramedic in AZ. Worked out of Scottsdale Memorial Hospital.  That was 1975, sure the place has changed a bit since then!

If you wonder why people think you're nuts, and you can't get friends and family to prepare, just look at the headline below. 

Indiana is Prepared.  They're taking all steps they can think of to be ready for a pandemic.

Yeah. Right.

I live in Indiana just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky.  I'm rather pleased that our governor at least recognizes the potential that the flu pandemic exists.  So even if you consider the headline rather outlandish, I believe that Indiana is a small step ahead of other states in admitting that a problem may exist.  I wonder if some states, especially those with a higher proportion senior citizens such as Florida, have announced similar plans.  Go Hoosiers!!!

Halogen, wasn't impuning your governor. Just the editor/reporter that wrote this Happy Talk piece.

Found another article which indicates that the state takes all of this more seriously than the author of the previously cited article.

Indiana prepares for possible bird flu pandemic

DEANNA MARTIN

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana has formed statewide and county-level emergency plans to deal with a possible avian flu pandemic - plans that include worst-case measures such as quarantining people, canceling major public events or limiting treatment, state officials said Friday.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said the state needs to be prepared for the worst, while hoping for the best.

"All steps that we can think of to take are being taken," Daniels said. "If, perish the thought, we should have to implement this plan, life would be very different in Indiana, at least for a while. It contains steps that most of us have not seen in our lifetimes."

The strain of flu called H5N1 is spreading through wild birds and poultry in numerous countries, and has raised fears of a global epidemic if it mutates to become easily spread among humans.

People with flu symptoms could be isolated during a pandemic, either in a hospital or at home, depending on the severity of their symptoms, said State Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe. Those who have come in contact with the sick could be quarantined at home until they know they do not have the disease, she said.

Daniels said major public events, including sports and other large gatherings, could be canceled during a pandemic to help stop the disease from spreading.

If the outbreak got to worst-case scenario levels, Monroe said, the state would have to determine which patients should be treated on hospital ventilators and which should not. She said hospitals in the state are currently considering whether to buy more ventilators.

"The standard of care that we know today would be stretched," she said.

Eric Dietz, executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said emergency management officials would be working to protect heath care and government workers. In a worst-case scenario, he said a third of doctors, nurses and government officials could be sick or unable to do their jobs.

"This is an event that needs all of those people in their place of duty," Dietz said.

Daniels said local officials have already done training exercises, and the state is planning a March 23 summit to further discuss the plan.

Monroe said the most important thing is to stop the disease before it gets out of control. She said people can help stop the spread of disease by washing hands, using tissues and staying home from work or school when sick - the same preventive measures used during seasonal flu outbreaks.

NZ has a plan. They have told us we will be on our own. Dont expect any help

ummm, I work in the media. And my suggestion is to
not shoot the messenger. There are several
reasons as to why the media is not making a big
deal of the bird flu.

1) most Americans have a very short attention span.
If the media goes heavy on a story and then nothing
happens in a month, then they are considered
"hyping" the issue. They lose credibilty and as a
result, noone listens when something really
happens. ( ie, SARS, West Nile, Mad Cow)
2) The media gets it's information from sources. if
the ind. gov. says it's prepared then that's what they
write. That's the truth-The ind. gov. says it's prepared.
3) I know the media will be all over this when it goes
sustained h2h. When health care people are
confirmed with bf or soldiers or first responders, you
will see a barage of coverage.
4) Print newspapers are limited by space,
broadcasters by time. With all the news out there
right now, finding space and time to cover a
"potential" story is diffucult. Also, investigating every
little thing every person says to a reporter takes up
more resources than most editors that have a
circulation of less than 150,000 are willing to
allocate.

Personally, yes, I would love to see more coverage of
BF and less coverage of Brad and Angeline. But, if
the newspapers and broadcasters spout nothing but
negative news then noone will watch or read, thereby
doing the community a disservice.

Remember, the media is on your side. We want to
tell you the truth. We want to share what we find out.
We want to empower you with knowledge.
I am just suggesting that in my humble opinion,
shooting the messenger isn't the way to go. It's the
officials that hand out the message you should be
targeting.

Tammy

A month ago, people were complaing that media was not paying too much attention to avian flu preparedness. Now the media is reporting more on the subject, but this time people are complaining about the hype in the media.

It is difficult to make the public happy I guess.

Edited by ps36

Gypsy IMHO  could the media just try to get public to prep in general? (hurricans,fires,and with spring just around the corner tornados) Think of all the lives they will be saving. They could do a story on how little food is in our countrys food bank, and it is run by HUD! Why will the media not try? Its not to scare folks...just get the facts out, most people will be shocked,  a vacine will take two years to even produce (if one is found). Gypsy how will a family of four live ,just say 90 days with the small  staples of food that they have in their cupboads today? I thank you for trying Gypsy,but PLEASE dont give up! I pray that I am wrong about this flu...In the words of my Great Grandmother who lived through the 1918 flu" If it happend once it will happen twice "

wow, I wasn't expecting any replies to my post. Big
deep breath and respond...

stormriderfla-first of all I mostly agree with you
analysis of today's media. Since the small family
owned newspapers have been taken over by huge
corporate entities and publishers come from the ad
department instead of the news department, a lot of
news is "for sale". It's a big business. And there is a
lot of competition between internet, radio,
broadcasting and print media. The bean counters do
not dictate stories, however, they do dictate the
amount of resources a reporter has to get that story.
Slashing budgets have had a huge impact on our
industry. And I totally agree that "news-gathering" is
wrong. However, again the competition to be first
sometimes trumps good journalism. I really enjoyed
your post. But, please remember the vast majority of
reporters out there want desperately to bring in the
story as honestly and objectively as possible.

Angel, I am so sorry that you had to endure that. I
completely disagree with that editor. If it had been
me, I would have published your letter.

Aunt bones, as unfortunate as it sounds, tornados,
hurricanes and fires are considered an immanent
threat whereas bf is still a distant possible threat.
And I totally agree, I wish the reporters would pay
more attention to the "what could happen" of bf and
less to silly little things. I know this must be a very
difficult time for families with limited resourse. I am
crunching my own budget to prep for this thing. ( they
don't pay photographers much) And by the time
reporters start doing stories on the limited supplies
the gov't has to handle this, it will be too late.

Thank you all for your posts on this subject. Rick is
right, it's difficult to please everyone when it comes to
the media. Just today, a woman complained to me
that all we run is bad news. I pointed out all of the
recipe, health, sports, kiddie photos that we run.

And just remember, if it weren't for the media, most
people would not know bird flu even existed.

ok. I am off of my soapbox now.
sqawk.

Tammy

The Government is going to help the Canadian media learn to properly report on BF.Spin control at its best, Sure they will be offering a few other suggestions along the way. Isn't that what they have editors for?

Public Health Agency, provinces hold crash courses on pandemic reporting (English)

ontario news

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Sunday, Feb 12, 2006

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Public Health Agency, provinces hold crash courses on pandemic reporting

TORONTO (CP) - Think of it as a travelling crash course, Pandemic Influenza 201. Top officials of the Public Health Agency of Canada are about to embark on a cross-country series of seminars aimed at teaching Canadian journalists about the complex science of pandemic influenza and the plans Canadian authorities are putting in place to respond when the next flu pandemic hits. "Basically it's a recognition of the fact that the level of understanding varies a great deal," the country's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, said of the decision to offer the seminar. The sessions, which will be hosted jointly with provincial and territorial chief medical officers of health, will be held in 16 centres across the country. The series kicks off Tuesday with separate sessions in St. John's, N.L., and Halifax. Butler-Jones will lead the former while his deputy, Dr. Paul Gully, will lead the latter. Sessions will be held Wednesday in Fredericton and Charlottetown. It is expected the seminars will be completed by late March. The aim is to build up an expertise and understanding in newsrooms across the country on a subject that is both challenging to comprehend and to convey in newspaper articles or broadcast media reports. What's the difference between a flu vaccine and the antiviral drug Tamiflu? Between a virus (which influenza is) and a bacterium (which influenza isn't)? Why is it important to differentiate between avian influenza and pandemic influenza? What are Canada's plans for using the Tamiflu the federal, provincial and territorial government's have stockpiled? Butler-Jones hopes the government officials won't just be teaching. He expects question-and-answer sessions to give him and his colleagues a better idea of what the media's information needs will be when a pandemic begins to unfold. "Hopefully we can be as transparent and clear and articulate when we do face something," he said. < =text/> // < src="http://ads.mytelus.com/js.ng/site=myt&section=news&subsection=ontario&=16&ord=0.5089994047095863" =text/>   Journalism professors at two of Canada's leading journalism schools felt the idea of giving reporters a crash course like this would be useful. Paul Knox, who heads the journalism program at Toronto's Ryerson University, said in the current media climate, few outlets have reporters assigned full time to a beat like health. So chances are good that the reporters who are going to be covering pandemic developments may have little background in public health or science, said Knox, a former newspaper reporter. Helping more reporters build a base from which to report accurately and knowledgeably makes sense, he suggests. "I can't see how there's a downside to it." Kathryn O'Hara, a former reporter who teaches science and health reporting at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the seminars will give reporters across the country access to experts and the information they have. "They're charged with the public health of Canada and it pays to see what they have to say," she said. Influenza and public health experts have feared a pandemic may be looming since late 2003 when a highly virulent avian flu virus, H5N1, ignited a series of outbreaks of avian flu in domestic poultry in a number of countries in Southeast Asia. But it was largely a back-page story until last fall, when U.S. President George W. Bush started speaking publicly about the pandemic threat. His attention to the issue led to a worldwide explosion of avian and pandemic influenza coverage - and a steep learning curve for journalists the world over. © The Canadian Press, 2006 http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=ontario_home&a mp;articleID=2169646