As I was getting my flu shot last week, I realized that it’s been awhile since I deposited any bird pandemic droppings here.
Then I saw this report earlier today about a potential human infection in China. You can bet that pandemic media coverage will spool up over the next few months, even without a major outbreak.
And that leads to CEOs and board members asking “What are we doing about X?” sort of questions.
So here’s a few resources:
— NPR did an interesting interview on the subject a few months ago; they covered a Treasury Department scenario planning exercise.
— That Treasury-sponsored event has an “Untitled” web page here. There is a treasure trove of information, which is to be expected since the financial services industry is ahead of just about everyone else on crisis planning. (Note: some of the material says “not for public distribution,” so it may not be live indefinitely).
— The federal government has a general website here.
— A CDC-sponsored website is helpful as well.
Any discussion of pandemics (bird flu, SARS, or otherwise) is really about crisis planning. On steroids, if you will.
A closer look might be wise for many companies.
