Despite not being able to be together for JC, I thought I would distribute the JC package as well as a few additional links for your review. We had originally scheduled a hands-on JC at the Virginia Beach Fire Training Center with colleagues from FEMA’s VA-TF2 as well as additional local Hazmat specialists which will have to be rescheduled. I want to extend my thanks to them and look forward to a future JC with these experts.

When one looks at a chart of the history of pandemics, it is sobering to see how many lives have been lost over the ages. Over 30% of Europe’s population was wiped out from the Great Plague (1347-51), and case fatality rates including healthcare workers from Ebola were reported to be as high as 90% . An IOM report on the management of the SARS pandemic cited a host of public health initiatives including the Global Outbreak Alert Response Network that were considered instrumental in mitigating disease spread as well as a recently updated WHO Pandemic Checklist for influenza. Today, we find ourselves in somewhat unchartered waters however, as one of our included papers states regarding lessons learned from prior events, “The need to focus on communications and trust building in all phases of a pandemic is an essential lesson for improving planning for pandemics and responding to seasonal influenza.”

Latest CDC Update

ARTICLES:

Guan WJ et al, Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China. China Medical Treatment Expert Group for Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020 Feb 28

Morens DM et al, The Mother of All Pandemics Is 100 Years Old (and Going Strong)! Am J Public Health. 2018 Nov;108(11):1449-1454

Monto AS et al, Lessons From Influenza Pandemics of the Last 100 Years. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Feb 14;70(5):951-957. 

Roberts V. To PAPR or not to PAPR? Can J Respir Ther. 2014 Fall;50(3):87-90. Review.

 Chotiner, I How Pandemics Change History, The New Yorker March 3, 2020 Last visited March 10, 2020