Schools Told to Prepare for Bird Flu
The nation’s schools, recognized incubators of respiratory diseases among children, are being told to plan for the possibility of an outbreak of bird flu. Federal health leaders say it is not alarmist or premature for schools to make preparations, such as finding ways to teach kids even if they’ve all been sent home.
Best way to prepare the public for something and avoid a panic? Get them used to the idea of something. Lets say that scientists discover little green men on Mars. Knowing that just coming out and announcing that will cause all sorts of wild episodes from the public, they build up to it…they’ll start with ‘mars may have supported life’, then move to ‘possible evidence of life found’, massage that for a while and then go with ‘life still may exist’, get people used to the idea that Mars might have something on it, go through a few more generations of ‘might,could,possibly’ and then cuminate with ‘Ambassador Molari will be at the UN Thursday for a treaty signing’.
Maybe its the same thing here…they know its going to happen and they know its going to cause ‘panic’ amongst the population…so they warm us up to get us used to the idea that its ‘remotely possible’, then ‘unlikely’, moving onto ‘possible’ and , as Gale norton just announced, ‘likely’. Thus, when it does happen we can all say ‘oh, I saw this on the news last year its not a big deal’.
Bird flu as a non-event? I dont think it’ll be anything like the 1918 Flu pandemic but it doesnt have to be to make everyones lives a bit more interesting (thats ‘interesting’ in the Chinese sense.) As Bin Laden showed, a strike against a countries economy is as good, if not better, than a strike against its population.
Moral: be prepared.
The best way schools can “prepare for” a flu epidemic is to shut down, because if they don’t, they’ll spread the infection exponentially. They can hand out textbooks to any parents who care enough about their kids to keep their education going, and then re-tool the school facilities into makeshift hospitals.
OTH,
It’s vitally important that children attending D.C. schools be allowed to vector pathogens to their parents.
It should be a national imperative that D.C. be isolated and the schools remain open.
You think the people who work in DC, actually live in DC and send their kids to DC schools?
“Maybe its the same thing here…they know its going to happen and they know its going to cause ‘panic’ amongst the population…so they warm us up to get us used to the idea that its ‘remotely possible'”
I think this is one of the reasons Mark Leavitt has been advocating preparedness to the magnitude he has expressed. If Avian Flu turns bad, the FEDGOV can state, without lying, that federal officials did advocate emergency preparedness, avoiding a Katrina like fiasco. If it turns out to be a Y2K’esqe non-event, well, no harm done and Mark Leavitt look like Chicken Little. Should the situation turn embarassing for the FEDGOV, everyone can point to Leavitt and blame him, while still maintaining legitamacy and of course, incumbancy.
I still see Leavitt as being a Low Probablity of Panic channel of communication for the public. Plus it prepares him for future public fanfare, should H5N1 become more problematic. Given pandemic condition, we’ll be seeing allot of Mr. Leavitt—for better or worse.
The political strategy, and there is no doubt in my mind that this was a premeditated plan, is pretty good, unless you’re Mark Leavitt during a pandemic.
sounds
just like the “duck and cover” drills in case of the bomb. anyhow anything about the workplace or the malls? and you might wonder why some out there “home school” their kids.
wonder what the school officials do if your kid starts hauling a NBC outfit to school? wonderful post, thank you. Wildflower 06