Pandemics

Preparing for Pandemics

A pandemic is by nature a transboundary crisis. Pandemics cross political boundaries. We usually think of these boundaries as international, but the political boundaries can also be internal to a particular country. Functional boundaries are also crossed in pandemics, because multiple policy areas are impacted. Health systems are among the first policy areas we think of in a pandemic. However, financial, industrial, educational, and political systems, among others, are deeply affected by widespread disease outbreaks. With all the parties affected across the various boundaries, response to the crisis is made much more complex. Mutual dependencies are created, and the need for cooperation becomes acute. Without prior preparation for such a crisis, the various parties may have trust issues, not knowing if others can be trusted in the middle of the crisis. The more serious the crisis, the more necessary preparation, trust, and cooperation become.

Crisis managers must plan for many eventualities in preparing for pandemics. Preventive measures must first be addressed. The medical community, aided by a host of partners, must seek to develop plans of action that will keep an epidemic from becoming a pandemic. These plans must include medical as well as nonmedical actions. Efforts to stop the spread of a pandemic must also address the transportation capabilities available. [Page 710]Many airports have the capability to scan arriving passengers with an infrared camera in order to detect those with fevers. Assessments must be made of the medicines or vaccines that will be effective in addressing the disease, and plans must include distribution systems for these medications. Of course, advance work must be done to prepare for the surge of patients that will sometimes overwhelm health care facilities. Governments and other actors will be tasked with mobilization of the vast resources that will be called for. Preparations must even be made for identification, storage, and burial of large numbers of bodies, which must include conducting funerals or observing other religious rituals when possible.

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