Draft Report Outlines Plans for Pandemic
May 3, 2006
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
The federal government will stockpile 75 million doses of antiviral drugs and 20 million doses of vaccine to combat any outbreak of pandemic flu, according to a summary of a draft response plan expected to be unveiled today by the White House.
A flu pandemic would severely disrupt the economy, and private businesses and government agencies should assume that up to 40 percent of employees would be absent for up to two weeks at the height of each wave of infections, the undated 17-page draft summary says.
Local police departments and state National Guard units would have primary responsibility for keeping order, but the military would be available to assist.
The secretary of health and human services will lead the government's response, with the Department of Homeland Security in a supporting role, the summary said.
An administration official, who was granted anonymity to speak because the plan had not been formally announced, said it would lay out measures that businesses and agencies should take to minimize spread of a virus.
The measures include allowing telecommuting, cutting back on the number of meetings, introducing liberal leave policies and staggering employee shifts.
The goals include helping make sure that "people aren't coming and going from a workplace at the same time" and generally to "encourage people to stay at home" if they have any sense they are infected, the official said.
"The main purpose of this implementation plan is to say, 'Department X, you need to be doing the following,' " he said.
The plan says, however, that setting up operational logistics will be up to the various departments.
The first part of the plan was released in November. Under it, the federal government shouldered responsibility for developing a vaccine and stockpiling antivirals, and state and local governments were told to plan for the medical response and quarantine.
Many of them soon complained that they had no money and no control over privately owned local hospitals.
The nation's borders would almost certainly not be closed, the draft summary says, because the virus would enter the country anyway, enforcement would be difficult, and such an action would "present foreign affairs complications and have significant negative social and economic consequences."
The federal government will establish policies for screening travelers for flu symptoms and make recommendations about quarantines. It could also restrict unnecessary domestic travel.
In addition to increasing the stockpile of human vaccines and antivirals, the government will increase the stockpile of poultry vaccines to 110 million doses.
It will create separate stockpiles of masks, suits, disinfectants and antiviral medication for poultry workers. (American policy now is to avoid vaccination and to kill any infected chickens that may be found, but countries like China and Vietnam began vaccinating when the virus began spreading faster than flocks could be tested and culled.)
Under the government's plan for the worst-case possibility, a pandemic flu could cause up to two million deaths in the United States.
Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting for this article.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
