In terms of what’s stopping prepareness, I think it’s mainly cultural inertia – as you say, experience with SARS got Canadians moving – not something I knew, but makes perfect sense.

I think it’s important to realize that if the shit hits the fan, plans worked out by ordinary people have every chance of being adopted. I did a round of work on rehousing people after nuclear events – http://disastr.org – and that’s a concept that could easily be rolled out in a huge tragedy.

I think we need a similar, but vastly more detailed, publicly maintained panflu response plan – an “in the event of crisis, do these things” pointed not just at individual preparers, but also at governments.

Governments can’t do everything. Bureaucracies are slow and wary of extremes. Sudden is not their strength – just look at the response to Hurricane Katrina. We can (and must) pick up the slack, so that in a real crisis, the public servants tasked with coping can pick up our work, and then build upon it with the enormous power of government.

Yes, I’m serious.

Thank you. Lugon and others on the fluwiki have discussed your work.

H5N1 is a natural problem or disaster, by not preparing we make it a man made disaster. Much like flooding or earthquakes. They happen. Ignoring them only makes it worse.

I do not think it is all about money. I sadly feel it is short sightedness. Canada who rememebrs SARS is taking far more seriously than the US, who was unaffected by it.

Thanks for writing. Thanks for asking for input or response. Wee need solutions not blind fear.

Kobie
“All that I know never changed my mind as much as the one thing I did not” – Kobie