ARCHIVE: How Prepared Is Your Community for a Coronavirus Pandemic?
Overview
Even if your community is prepared for the corona virus to become a pandemic, most likely their pandemic plan contains one major flaw – we will discuss that and other aspects that need to be considered for a pandemic plan.
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All our sources remain anonymous until they give us permission to share their names and bio information.
This post was constructed from an email received from one of our very reliable resources who had received that email from a very reputable veterinarian.
For the most part the following sections are verbatim from the email.
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The author of the content in that email is Brad Windley, a veterinarian license in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia as well as highly involved in educational leadership and practice.
A short bio for Brad is available at the end of this post.
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Brad had heard – and shared – this podcast is from ThreatJournal.com, which was first aired on Saturday, January 25, 2020 and is supplemental to their normal Saturday podcast.
He provides some additional insight that is pertinent to your everyday living and well as planning, which we share after the following video introduction.
Introduction to the Podcast Interview
Dr. Steve Hatfill is is an American physician, virologist, and former bio-defense researcher for USAMRID (U.S Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases – Fort Detrick, Frederick MD).
His medical fellowships include Oxford University, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Nation Research Council.
He is also the lead author of the book Three Seconds Until Midnight, which looks at the history of pandemics and the poor state readiness of the U.S. medical system for the next pandemic event.
This podcast will assist in giving you a background about viruses as well as the corona virus.
The podcast is about 32 minutes in duration, and you probably will want to have a pen and paper handy…
Opens in our online library - to open in a new tab, right-click the button then click ‘the open in a new tab’ command in the popup menu…
The email we received with Brad’s observations of this podcast starts here…
What You Need to Know from the Podcast Interview
Everyone needs to listen to this Podcast and take to heart that we are individually responsible for some planning for failure of services.
Dr. Hatfill is correct – and has given an excellent synopsis – about the evolution of viral pandemic potentials and the human/societal ability to respond.
We are a sneeze, blink of an eye, and seconds of contact from disaster wherever we are on this planet.
However, history is being recapitulated here.
Most factor viral infections begin in the Far East, incubate, learn to jump species there (avian to swine, then swine to human) as then proceed to the viral pattern of spreading globally – which is always East to West, with a pause in Central Asia, another in Western Europe, then – bam, boom – it hits the Western Hemisphere.
Of course, our current travel habits and aversion to restricting any global citizens’ travel and entry speeds up that process greatly.
We are sitting ducks due to the nature of viral disease and our own societal habits.
Government Jurisdiction Considerations, Daily Resources, Knowledge Awareness
However, the Doctor has covered one area that he did not accomplish accurately in the sense of being complete.
He was obviously not aware of a Federal collaboration with participating states to develop local county-by-county Pandemic Plans.
Tennessee, for example, has fully participated as did most counties of Tennessee, including Coffee County.
I was a participant along with administrative heads of most services organizations within our county and region.
My credentials came through my training, being chairperson of the Coffee County Health Council, and chairperson of the Coffee County Board of Health.
For many weeks, we meet for hours on end and developed a unique local Plan from a basic framework supplied by CDC and State Health.
I will tell you that the Plan was extensive, highly specific, and workable.
However, here was one major failure of the Plan.
Once we were done, had published our findings, and placed copies in all the proper hands, the mother snake left and no public knowledge of the plan, no dry run exercises, and no further dissemination of the Plans’ data was committed.
From my experience, I would find the Plan still functional and as effective as possible, but all Plans need periodic revisits and updating.
Administrative leaders have changed – and most probably, don’t know the plan exists.
Authority to activate the Plan has scattered and the lack of knowledge by the public just how personal, extensive, and enforceable the Plan is would be shocking and meet with lots of protests by “snowflakes”.
Truthfully, this Podcast should be made publicly available and individuals to realize that they must be responsible for 14 to 30 days of no services being available should a virus jump to Pandemic.
That would be food, medication, water, energy, etc!
However, this approach would most likely induce a self-feeding wide-spread panic, which is why our Pandemic Plan is not general public knowledge.
The Status of Our Preparedness for a Pandemic
Few realize that inventory available on grocery shelves are in a 72-hour producer to shelf-cycle.
Without constant replenishing – which is mostly likely during a pandemic – once 72-hours expires there are no replacements nor transportation services to replenish that inventory.
All food markets would need to be centralized within 12 hours and food products would have to be placed under armed protection.
Another thing, there are many in all communities that live from visit-to-visit to their convenience markets for prepared foods and have NO survival supply of non-perishable foods.
Can you imagine with the lower SOE (Standard Operating Environment) and other plan failures, what these people would do?
For them, without that replenishment to the markets, a pandemic becomes an individual a family fight to survive, an individual fight to exist – leading to vandalism, hoarding, breaking-and-entering of any market that can be taken down.
Endemic, Epidemic, Pandemic – What’s the Difference?
Click the image or here to view the differences [archive]…
In all its glory and effort, the local efforts, state efforts, and federal ineptitude would render the Plan of low effect.
One factoid being – that in the presence of an active pandemic – 60% of service workers at all levels will also be sick and out of action.
This means hospitals to county services and everything in between that relies upon a rendered service and/or product movement would be diminished greatly.
This means also that the capacity for all medical services and needs would be grossly overwhelmed, even with NO attrition of staff.
At the time of the plan, I had 3 positive ventilators at my clinic, and only 10 or so existed in the county.
You can imagine the demand from a respiratory virus on the need for ventilators, beds – and, yes – coffins and embalmment chemicals.
As veterinarians, we have dealt with Corona virus in its many iterations with various species.
Each being unique in symptomology, mortality, and morbidity.
A great analogy of our concern, forethought, and active planning is that we are still in the “duck and cover” mentality of the 50’s.
Editor’s Note
Emotions can run high and rampant when the environment and lives come under very stressful risk(s).
It is the time to stop, assess, think, plan, organize, strategize, and co-ordinate all efforts, everyone’s efforts — this will have a calming affect on most and will result in improved conditions quickly.
There will be leaders among you, there will be people with skills that can help most or everyone during such times — find them and be sure they are willing to assist.
There will be those running their emotions like a headless chicken — somehow they have to be calmed down.
In a pandemic, there are going to be casualties – learn to accept that.
And above everything else, starting now, be sure your relationship with God is being built stronger than it has ever been in the past – nothing is bigger than He.
Writer’s Bio
Brad Windley is a veterinarian license in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia as well as highly involved in the educational leadership and practice. He has been self-employed in pet animal medicine and surgery since 1978. He has also been very active in educational leadership and practices, gaining special honors for Cohort Leader during his 3 years of matriculation, awarded the Cohort Leadership Award by Cohort II, selected to represent Trevecca Nazarene University and present, provided dissertation research to the Tennessee Professors of Educational Administration in 2002, and gained the Exemplary Dissertation Award: EdD Dissertation in the same year. Brad has gained multiple recognitions, awards, and has served on several boards relating to animal science as well as educational leadership. Add to all this, he is a licensed multi-engine Private Pilot, amateur radio operator, and loves gourmet cooking and find dining.
img credit: Passengers wear protective masks as they arrive at Beijing Capital Airport in Beijing, China, on Jan. 30, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
originally published on DecisiveLiberty.News [archive] on 30-Jan-2020