PANDEMIC WEBSITE About: This paper proposes that a website be developed which would help citizens know how to continue their normal routines of life without having to come within breathing distance of other people in the event of an 1918-like pandemic. The main goal would be to facilitate "social distancing" while still keeping the economy running. A Serious Danger: The 1918 "Spanish" influenza killed an estimated 30,000,000 people world-wide. Presently the world has about three times as many people and we are far more connected via transportation. In 2009, we really dodged a bullet with the swine flu epidemic. Even though there were early reports and significant alarm, the epidemic kept spreading and spreading for weeks and months unabated. It continued to spread until all states within the United States had epidemic levels in all regions. This is a really bad omen. Despite all of the disaster planning post 9/11, media coverage, and even general public fear, the pandemic kept spreading. If it had the lethality of the 1918 pandemic, tends of millions of people would likely have died. Our health care system would have been easily swamped. There are just not that many ventilators. SOCIAL DISTANCING I believe that the single most effective intervention is social distancing. This means taking action to stay out of the breathing distance of other people. Fortunately, even though public health authorities might caution people "not to panic", people will panic and will implement their own social distancing, and this will go a long way to slowing the spread and reducing the peak level of deaths. But if the 2009 swine flu is any indication, too many people are going to die. In the event of a highly lethal strain, EARLY social distancing and stopping transit across regional borders might save millions of lives. THE PROBLEM But how do you keep an economy going when no one wants to interact with each other? How will restaurants stay in business. How will you be able to pick up your groceries or medications? How will students get educated. Will people stop attending churches? A NETWORKING WEBSITE This papers proposes that a single website be developed which would help peopl figure out how to continue their daily routines without coming within breathing distance of each other. It could also help people know how to deal with a sick loved one. The website should be very practical and efficient to use. pandemicflu.gov has a lot of good information. But try to navigate it to get an answer to a simple question such as, "How is my child supposed to continue their education when I don't want to send them to school". It if difficult and often impossible to find such a basic question on that website. Instead, the networking website should have categories such as the following: - Food - Education - Doctor visits - Medication - Shopping - Community groups - Our economy - Prevention - vaccinations and meds - Symptoms - Treatment Under each category would be practical recommendations of what can be done given the circumstances. But more importantly, the website needs to work two ways. All teachers need to be able to enter their class assignments and instructions in easily to find parts of the database. Pastors of various denominations should be able to post (in an organized, easily findable manner) what alternate worship options are available (e.g. Calvary Chapel International meets on Sundays 8:30-9:00a PST on the _____ Channel.). People should be allowed to volunteer to be couriers. They post their location and cell phone #. When someone needs their meds, the couriers drive to the pharmacy, money and medications are exchanged through the outside door. While driving to the patient's home, the driver calls and the patient leaves money out on the driveway. The driver drops off the medicine, picks up the money, honks the door, and noone ever breathed each other's air. Restaurants could put out signs saying, "Please support your local businesses - order by calling 909-555-1212". People call, the restaurant calls back when the food is ready, and money and food is exchanged at the front door. The restaurant posts how their sales are doing compared to normal so that the public can see which businesses need more support. 3P PLANS So long as the website is ready to go before a pandemic hits, the information will be rapidly filled once everyone is focused on the pandemic. However, even before a pandemic occurs, the website could be helpful to get businesses to develop their own Pandemic Preparedness Plans (3P). Some public health entity somewhere (e.g. the CDC) working with businesses, writes up example 3P plans for types of businesses. Individual business owners don't really understand practical epidemiology enough to be able to develop a practical plan. Hand sanitizer use at a barber shop might be a bit of help but they really need to have the front door open and a fan blowing air out that door. The availability of masks might help as well. So, this public health entity works with some barbers to develop a one-page sheet listing the business' distaster plan. This example plan is then posted on the pandemic networking website. When a pandemic hits, the businesses will be caught flat footed. However, they can simply go to the networking website, download the 3P plan for their type of business, modify it as appropriate, and post it by their front door and in their work area. Then, they can list their business has having a 3P plan. That page would encourage the public to contact their businesses in town and encourage them to download and implement their own 3P plans.