I have searched a great deal but I can find nothing about the plans,if any,for the US mail to keep operating.It is a vital service and may be more so if the grid starts to go and takes communications with it.I find some info about some people`s plans to handle their mail carefully but nothing from the USPS.There was a post about France`s plan to eliminate junk mail during a pandemic but that is all I have heard concerning ANY government`s approach to keeping the mails running.Has anyone any information or ideas to share about this topic?
There probably won’t be as much mail with everyone sick. My thought is who cares about the mail. If many of my neighbors are sick and dying, the stores are closed, people are hungry, the electricity is on for only a few hours everyday, the mail is the not something I would care about. I bet there would be alot of things that would not be important at that point. Our main focus, is to stay healthy and eat. Of course, this assumes a bad flu outbreak. If mild, things will probably go on faily normally. Just my opinion.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”
Doesn’t say anything about a pandemic. I imagine if the mail service continues, as it did in 1918, deliveries will be cut from 6 days a week to maybe 3 or 4 days.
A thread about mail http://tinyurl.com/ymr2tf
Bronco Bill - at 08:06 - very strange. I saw the subject line, did a quick google on the Postal Service Moto. Copied it and came here to post it - and low and behold - you have beat me to it!!!
Another place to look will be internet service provdier plans. In a pandemic we can expect internet based purchase to go through the roof as people avoid shops. Therefore, businesses that are particularly dependent on postal services for their operations should have been working with delivery providers as part of their continuity.
I wonder what the best way will be to handle mail. Should it be quarantined? Should it be sanitized? Do we simply assume that it is infected?
(Reconscout, I have reason to believe at least some of the postal service has been given the prepandemic H5N1 vaccine (since back before the Oct/Indonesia pre-pandemic strain- I forget - the 2004 strain, wherever that was from?)
I suppose, if the public had heard what the USPS plans were, they’d realize pandemic is a present threat, and that doesn’t seem to be too high a priority, does it?
If any USPS lurkers want to get on a public library computer and tell us what’s up…
;-)
Has the Wiki looked at COP-E Continuity of Operations -Essential guidlines lately ? Pandemic Influenza, Preparedness Response and Recovery Guide for Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources
(“Ugh- Show some empathy and openness now, so the public and essential workers can prepare against a pandemic influenza year!) p82; “In a crisis, your message to employees and the media must be
Simple- Frightened people do not want to hear big words, Timely-Frightened people want information now, Accurate- Frightened people will not get nuamces, so give it straight, Relevant- Answer their questions and give action steps, Credible- Empathy and openness are your keys to credibility, Consistent- The slightest change in the message is upsetting.”…
(Dr.Dave I think the how to handle the mail thread is the one Chesapeake linked at at 08:08) (But, I think we’ll have more to worry about from people, than the mail, though, it wouldn’t hurt to take precautions with it.)
(I was typing from looking at the pdf -they did spell “nuances” correctly even though I can’t type…Wish they’d be more concerned about people getting prepped and staying alive and functioning for the recovery period than about whether or not they are “upset”. The public and employees would have a lot less to be upset about if they had not been treated like children or sheep during the -at least- past 12 months)
I do not have home mail delivery, but pick mine up from the Post Office. If possible, I may make a middle of the night run to get what is in my box, adequately protected of course. More than likely, deliveries of mail to the PO, and people available to put it in the boxes, will be in short supply. I pay most of my bills online and I’m just going to let the rest go. I’m sure I won’t be the only person deliquent on my TV guide.
I have recently talked with my local postmaster and he said that he has received no information at all - nothing about pandemic preparedness, possible changes in operation, or general information about what a pandemic is from state or federal levels of the US Postal Service. He also said that he was not sure if they were even working on anything at the federal level because he receives regular updates (I forget if they are daily or weekly) about what is being worked on/planned for at the state and federal levels. This subject has never come up…
Sniffles – at 09:25
Why does that not surprise me?
(shudder) Sniffles, I hope you sent local postmaster to the Flu Wiki. (good on you for asking- I haven’t approached my postmaster yet. Got sidetracked thinking about families with children, first responders, and funeral homes.)
Dr Dave – at 09:03
I plan to handle any mail with rubber gloves and to spray it down with 90% isopropyl that I have in a spray bottle. Only vital mail of course, late prep shipments, etc.
I am a mail carrier and if any of us were vaccinated for H5N1 I at least have never heard about it.Shots for ordinary flu may have been offered at sometime in the past and that may be the origin of this rumor.I found a lot on the net on how to handle or disinfect one`s mail but that is an entirely different topic albeit a valuable one.Those who would rely on the internet need to consider how vulnerable that system would be if the worst happened.The management at the station where I work has not heard anything either nor have the union shop stewards.
Dr Dave – at 09:03 I wonder what the best way will be to handle mail. Should it be quarantined? Should it be sanitized? Do we simply assume that it is infected?
I manage a small call center for a large corporation. After following H5N1 for several years, I decided to implement all of the reccommendations from the government to see if we could cut down on absenteeism. The govt said to keep a distance of 3 feet, we did 12–15 feet. We wipe down phones, computers, tables etc. every day. We use hand sanitizer, lysol and what ever else we can get to insure that germs are kept in check. Everything is disinfected daily. All employees are cooperating and have tried their best to be aware of their actions.
Last week a bug went through the office. 5 out of 6 employees got it regardless of the social distancing in the workplace and all our other precautions. How maddening and very disconcerting.
The only common denominator was PAPER. I am trying to figure out how to minimize paper handling and how to disinfect it etc. A sale sheet goes from person to person and office to office. The other offices here are NOT doing anything different, and therein lies the problem I think.
I am going to post this as a new topic to see if other work places are getting different results, but in the meantime, once “it” comes, I for one, won’t be touching the mail without gloves and a mask.
(Reconscout, I had info that from my mail carrier, who may have already been on some sort of USPS continuity of operations/emergency planning list prior- guess, since I have no proof, its a rumor, but, the carrier -I brought the subject up first and we are not usually chatty- was very up on H5N1, a year ago; when my local health dept was still laughing it off “like swine flu/y2k”, it seems like a believable rumor to me. My gut feeling looking/listening to the carrier talk about how inadequate the pandemic planning was; collapse in two weeks -that was the only person in town I had found who sounded like they knew what was going on. Everyone else in town stuck to their script and said, they Do what memos from higher up say to do, If there is money allocated first. Public doesn’t know to ask, officials don’t want to tell when they have heard we could be in for a pandemic year.) Word is going to get out anyway.
If the postal services here and abroad have pandemic plans, making them public, if the details and assumptions stand up to common sense, would be good for the people and business to know.
Waiting until pandemic is occurring to tell is only going to add to an already over-booked learning curve. Cut some of the questions then, by telling plans now.