Pandemic Flu Would Not Keep All Americans At Home
Featured ArticleMain Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS; Public Health; Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 26 Oct 2006 - 14:00 PDT
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Although most Americans would try hard to comply with a request to stay at home to stem the spread of pandemic flu, work and lifestyle pressures would probably make this pledge impossible to keep, say researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. The survey, called Project on the Public and Biological Security (HPBS), was conducted to help public health officials plan for a possible flu pandemic or outbreak.
A survey of 1692 adults found that:
-- 94% said they would stay at home for seven to ten days if they had pandemic flu
-- 85% said they would stay at home for seven to ten days if a member of the household had pandemic flu
-- 90% said they would stay in their town or city if told to do so
-- 57% said they would stay at home if health officials told them, even if their bosses told them to come to work
-- 35% said they would go to work if their bosses told them to come to work, and public health officials had told them to stay at home
-- 25% said they would not be able to miss work to care for a sick relative
-- 76% of people who were told to stay at home to care for a sick household member would be worried about catching the illness
-- 24% said they would have nobody to care for them if they were ill
As you can see, the statistics don't add up.
If a pandemic strikes, keeping people at home until a vaccine is available is one way of controlling its spread. However, expecting people to stay in may amount to nothing more than wishful thinking. Other measures, such as closing schools and institutions, churches, shopping centers, sports venues and all places where large numbers of people congregate could also be enforced. But if contagious people sneak out, how effective would this be?
What would happen to a nation's economy if huge numbers of people had to stay at home - people such as garbage collectors, electricity workers, people who make sure we have running water?
Click here to view the complete survey (PowerPoint)
The survey's findings will be presented today at an Institute of Medicine Workshop - Modeling Community Containment for Pandemic Influenza. Professor Marc Lpsitch will also explain what interventions took place during the 1918 flu pandemic - Spanish Flu - which probably killed approximately 50 million people.
"In the Case of an Outbreak of Pandemic Flu, Large Majority of Americans Willing to Make Major Changes in Their Lives"
"Survey Also Finds Many People Would Face Critical Work-Related Problems"
Harvard School of Public Health, Project on the Public and Biological Security
Link Here
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
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Legislation Needed To Enable People To Stay Home
posted by Joe Chandler on 26 Oct 2006 at 4:44 pmYou’ve stockpiled flu pandemic supplies, you’re staying at home, you’re avoiding contact with others, just as the government advises. The pandemic rages all around. Leaving the house could be deadly. But you and your family have safe harbor. Your own home. Right?
Not necessarily. As most businesses close, you could be cut off from your income. When an eviction notice arrives from your banker or landlord, then what?
As part of national pandemic planing, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services clearly defines federal and state emergency powers currently in place to cope with the pandemic, including closing airports and borders, quarantining neighborhoods and prohibiting travel and public gatherings. But there are no provisions to enable financially paralyzed families to remain in their homes, no safeguards from normal eviction schedules by banks and landlords.
In some areas, the length of time that people may be advised to use their homes as sanctuary from the flu could be up to several months. Plus, there may be a second wave of a more virulent virus within a year. As economic devastation sweeps the country, families all across America will not be able to meet their normal monthly rent and mortgage payments. So how are Americans supposed to stay home?
On June 29, American Banking Association President and CEO Edward Yingling testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, assuring Congress that the banking industry is prepared for the flu pandemic, and has been “battle-tested” by Hurricane Katrina. Points covered included sustaining banking operations in the face of high absenteeism, maintaining telecommunications and continuing to provide services for customers such as availability to funds. Never was the question asked: “How does your industry plan to ensure that your financially devastated homeowners will be able to remain safely in their homes during the pandemic?” Nor was the issue raised by Mr. Yingling.
The FDIC has issued an Interagency Advisory on Influenza Pandemic Preparedness. Like the ABA, it focusses on plans for keeping banks operational during the pandemic, but it does not address the plight of financially ravaged homeowners to avoid foreclosures and evictions. The FDIC wields some power over its member banks, but according to an FDIC spokesperson: "The FDIC does not mandate banks under our supervisory jurisdiction to act favorable during a crisis. However, in the past the FDIC has asked banks under its supervision to do some commonsense things for their customers affected."
The banking industry on the whole may well have intentions of noble actions as was seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but the effects of the flu pandemic will be incalculably worse on the public and the banks alike. In the absence of specific emergency regulations to deal with this issue, families trying to maintain safe harbor from the pandemic will be at the mercy of desperate banks. The only measures that banking regulatory agencies can take is to ask banks to “play nice.”
As for renters, there is no central voice asking landlords to play nice, as the landlord/renter relationship is far less regulated than the banking industry. As landlords evict renters to make way for tenants with cash in hand, families across America will be rendered homeless in the wake of the pandemic.
Surviving the pandemic will be hard enough without the added burdens of oversights in pandemic planning. With society in shambles and deadly flu sweeping the country, evictions will be death sentences.
If the authorities say that staying home during the pandemic is critical for survival, as well as for the good of our society, and if economic disruption threatens to make this impossible for millions of Americans, then it is paramount that financial safeguards addressing the needs of homeowners, renters, bankers and landlords alike be put in place before Phase Six is declared. Not to keep people in Blackberries and Prada, but to keep them alive.
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