Better Pandemic Planning

The federal government’s evaluation of Connecticut’s plan for dealing with a pandemic flu isn’t all bad news.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gives the state passing marks in many important areas, especially in protecting critical infrastructure.

The evaluation, conducted in January, has taken on increased importance since the concerns over the swine flu surfaced last week.

But when it comes to the category of “protecting citizens,” the feds say Connecticut has room for improvement.

Most notably, the state is one of 39 whose plan either has “many major gaps” or is “inadequate” when it comes to the coordination of school and day-care closings and the dismissal of students in an emergency.

Not surprisingly, the federal government concludes that many states, such as Connecticut, leave the coordination of school and day-care closings — and the dismissal of students — to local governments.

On the surface, such a strategy might make some sense. After all, local governments are most familiar with the number and locations of schools and day-care facilities in their communities.

And authorities who are closest to the situation can react much quicker to events.

But, as the Department of Health and Human Services points out, a lack of state coordination in a pandemic could compromise the state’s ability to mitigate the transmission of the flu, and local governments have varying abilities to carry out the potentially difficult task of closing schools and child-care facilities on a moment’s notice.

Connecticut also scores poorly for failing to develop a plan that would avoid or limit interruption of its criminal justice system, including courts, correction, law enforcement, prosecutors and probation and parole officials.

The state’s plan to provide adequate health care during a pandemic also was assessed as inadequate.

Connecticut and 19 other states received poor marks for failing to incorporate sufficient interoperable communication systems, bed tracking, volunteer personnel management, fatality management and medical evacuation.

The state also took a hit for not adequately planning for mass fatalities by not having expanded refrigerated storage capacity and the necessary mortuary equipment and supplies, such as disaster body bags.

Connecticut certainly can’t claim the federal government hasn’t provided it the resources to come up with an adequate plan.

Of the $5 million that the feds gave the state, approximately 70 percent was appropriated to local public health agencies for them to develop their own plan. More than 24 percent — $1.2 million — was designated to salaries.

Fortunately, the Capital Region Council of Governments (CROCG) has been on top of its pandemic planning.

It was the first region in New England to pool its resources to purchase emergency equipment, conduct regional training exercises, and stockpile medications.

The state should take a cue from CRCOG and satisfy the federal standards for a comprehensive pandemic flu plan.

Reader response:

"The way the pandemic has spread so far, already shows the difference between now and the 1918 pandemic. The virus today is already in virtually every continent before it even spread locally in any country or state. The 1918 pandemic took weeks to reach other countries. With 19 confirmed deaths out of roughly 800 confirmed cases, that represents a mortality rate of 2.4%. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed about 2.75% of those it infected, so this one isn't that far off.'' -- Nigel Thomas, birdflumanual.com