Need some help. I want to write the school district and inform them about the possible bird flu pandemic. I looked on the isd website and found nothing on pandemic preparedness. I called and she didn’t know what I was talking about.Basically she said that there are no preparedness plans for the isd. The health offical stated that if there were to be a health issue that basically letters go out to parents and school officials only after a certain number of students have beeen infected with “xyz”. I have searched here and I have found letters & questions for water companies, local business, etc.. but I would like to know if there is a specific letter or set of questions here that I can send to the school district health coordinator. If there is not one here I can use.. can any of you give me some ideas on what to write or questions to ask? Thanks!
Forum.TheCaseForEarlySchoolClosure may help.
There’s also the Dept. of Ed Webcast. I can’t post a link right now but maybe someone else will? You can find the link on the wiki home page, on the right hand side, under Tip of the Day (Week?)
Print out a handful? (Wish they’d say Pandemic Year Preparedness)
Have they seen the Ten things the WHO thought you needed to know about pandemic influenza back in Oct. 2005 ?
US schools http://pandemicflu.gov/plan/school/index.html
US individuals http://pandemicflu.gov/plan/individual/index.html
Secretary Spellings Addressed the North Carolina Pandemic Planning Summit, March 21, 2006
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/03/03212006a.html
Dept of Ed webcast: http://connectlive.com/events/ednews/ October 17, 2006 “Keeping our Children Safe and Secure: Pandemic Flu and Emergency Preparedness”
Wow.. thanks crfullmoon for all the links.. will give them a try. FP
FP - I sent Superintendets in our area the following during PFAW
- basic info on AF/PF as well as aricles from NYTtimes explainign the science - WHO info and charts, including deaths by age (Huge % of school age children) - Philly death rates vs St Loius 1918 - St. Louis closed schools right away (along with other public events) and grealy reduced its death rate vs Philly.
I wish iI had had anon’s latest info which is linked in Lugon’s 16:14 post. Also, I have been casually bringing it up with Board of Ed members I know personally -at soccer games, etc. These persons have kids and I have gotten their attention. Even if they can’t get the board to do something, I think they are turning into preppers.
Forgot - if you are in “frisco”, Contra Costa County has a whole plan. It’s posted somewhere on the site here.
I put together a packet for our county school boards that was well received. If you would like to see what I sent, please send me an email to
cefprice@comcast.net
I won’t fight your spam blocker, but I will try to send the material along quickly.
bumping for anyone else that wants to contact their PTOs or school boards, or local newspapers…
Hello everybody, thanks for all the responses. I sent an email to the district health coordinator with several links I found on this website. I received a reply via email from him. This is what he wrote:
Thanks for your e-mail. We have worked closely with The US Dept of Homeland Security, The American Red Cross ,and both the Collin and Denton County Health Departments. Our schools have been designated as emergency sites should they need to be used for mass innoculations or to assist with a pandemic.
We would take our lead in pandemic response from our county health officials . We also have a District and campus crisis managenment plan that includes information for use by District staff. In addition we have over 30 registered nurses on our staff and we are in the process of looking at setting up a task force that would specifically assit us in preparation and response to a pandemic. Many of our staff are Homeland security volunteers and have been trained and would respond locally in an emergency situation.
Thanks again for your interest in Frisco ISD Doug
I felt his response was decent. At least there is some kinda’ plan. I just wonder how detailed it is. I asked him about educating parents , teachers and students about the possible bird flu pandemic and he has not responded to that yet. I will email him again to get a copy of their plans and other questions that went unanswered. Okay just wanted to share. I will email you olymom. Thanks!
don’t worry; we have plans, don’t worry; we have plans…we are only following orders, we are only doing what those above us tell us to do
pay no attention to the fact the public doesn’t know what a pandemic influenza year with a high fatality rate in young people is, and we are not prepared locally to meet the needs of people homebound by illness quarantine or supply chain diosruptions, and will be unable to handle a sustained mass fatality surge when we have had a year’s notice to not expect any federal nor state help
Not a decent response: since they failed to include the public up to this point, they are planning to fail the public. Any of those past clusters could have started pandemic, any of this month’s cases could be the start, on various continents. We are unready.
They’re keeping the public in the dark about the info at 16:50. We all have a problem. Here’s a new thing to print out:
If bird flu virus becomes pandemic, high death rates possible: WHO report “(CP) - There’s no guarantee the H5N1 avian flu virus would become less deadly to people if it triggers a pandemic, a new report from the World Health Organization warns.
A group of eminent influenza scientists gathered by the WHO last month concluded there is no reason to believe that the virus, which kills roughly 60 per cent of people who become infected, would become any milder if it evolves to become a pandemic strain.
The report, based on that meeting, cautions governments against spending a lot of money to stockpile existing H5N1 vaccines. It also reveals that a low level of H5N1 viruses found in wild and domestic birds appear to be naturally resistant to oseltamivir, the main flu drug being stockpiled against a future pandemic.”
…Modern science has never seen a flu virus as nasty as H5N1, and there is no way of knowing if the virus can become easily transmissible among people or what an H5N1 pandemic would look like.
“It’s one of those things that you hate to conjecture,” said Michael Perdue, an avian influenza expert and scientist with the WHO’s global influenza program.
“We just don’t know enough about this virus, a whole new subtype for humans. . . . If a new H5 enters, it could be more lethal than anything we’ve ever seen in history.”…
Of course, Dr.Nabarro said this a long while ago, it just hasn’t been publicized locally:
the Gartner Fellows interview Dec 2005 Dr. Nabarro: … “Yes, it’s going to happen; it’s only a matter of time.” …”it would be rather foolhardy not to prepare for it, given the enormous human, economic and other consequences”…
…”I’ve seen nothing from CDC that says there won’t be a pandemic”…
…”Modeling the total number of deaths is a waste of time”…
…The biology colleagues that I speak with tell me that if the pathogenic characteristics of H5N1 were to be taken forward as it mutates into having a human-to-human transmission capacity, then we would have a virus with high pathogenicity. So, we really have to hope that if it’s a mutant of H5N1 that causes the next pandemic, it sheds some of the pathogenicity that this current virus has during its mutation.”…
(Hope is Not a Plan)
Thanks crfullmoon, I replied to him requesting a copy of their plans. Also I did ask him again about educating teachers and parents of this emerging problem. I told him that I am willing to go to school board meetings and volunteer to help educate locally in our schools. I am a registered nurse.. not a doctor… but at least I can pressure this subject on the table. Thanks for the response and for those other reads as well. You are right, not a decent response after all. I wonder what he will say now? Frisco Parent.
One more thing.. I just want to say that I appreciate everybodys help. I feel at times a little intimidated with those in the “power positions”. I am just a nurse and I dont know alot about policy and plans for a whole city or school district. Like I said, this is important enough for me to not just sit around quietly. Thanks again.
And all the TLC /school threads /IOM slides should help, too.
will close due to Forum speed. Restart a new thread if needed.