Since Sunday my imagination has been running rampant with visions of post-pandemic post-apocolyptic societies. This may partly be because I am currently reading The Windup Girl, which takes place when global warming has caused massive flooding and genetic changes. The main problem, beside energy concerns, is disease caused by genetically modified (“gene-ripped”) organisms.
Anyways, I’ve been (somewhat jokingly) formulating plans for my own sci-fi novel, “Pandemic 2011″. I know of one series of books with a post-panemeic theme, Fire-Us. Another, the Peeps series, has a vampire/shedding theme. Do you all know of any others? I think it is an extremely interesting premise and one that is likely to continue to capture the imagination of authors for years to come.
Dr. Ian Greenwald, an emergency physician at Duke University Medical Center and an expert in distaster response planning, offers his thoughts on a mass vaccination campaign in the Durham/Chapel Hill area in the face of a disruptive and widespread pandemic during Session III (Emergency Preparedness and Response: Global Pandemic, Local Contexts).
Below is the GoogleDoc that students used to rank order 15 potential interventions. To read the instructions that were given out at the start of the small-group learning activity, see this post. To download a PDF of this form, click here.
(scroll to the right to see the entire document)
Globally we face a shortfall of an estimated 4.3 million health care workers. As you can imagine, the consequences are enormous when a local or global health crisis arises and there are not enough staff members to address the need.
Dr. Ian Greenwald and Dr. Cameron Wolfe both touched on this issue, but what are your thoughts on the dilemma? How do you allocate resources and manpower efficiently when you lack enough personnel? How do you address this issue when you are facing an emergency crisis, such as an infectious disease outbreak? Do we simply accept the fact that we will not be able to provide care to every single individual?
Small Group Learning Activity – Emergency Preparedness and Response
January 11, 2011
10:00 am-11:00 am
Your working group has one hour to discuss the following potential local community-based interventions that could potentially minimize the impact of Pandemic 2011 on the greater Durham community. You will be presenting your recommendations to a panel of local leaders including elected officials from Durham County, the State of North Carolina and the Duke University Board of Trustees. Community-wide emergencies require swift and coordinated action. Community leaders have limited options to stem a rapidly evolving pandemic and all have major social and financial implications. Your group’s recommendations will help leaders create a prompt, measured and coordinated response to the pandemic. The overarching goal for the community response is to limit transmission of the flu virus to vulnerable populations until a vaccine strategy targeting the new virus is underway.
Please review this Session III small-group learning activity document for more details and instructions.
Winter Forum is on Its Regular Schedule Today
The Winter Forum is operating on its regular schedule today. The C-2 buses are running as of 7 am, so students on East and Central campuses will be able to make it to West Campus. The faculty are able to make it in. We’ll see everyone at 8:30 for breakfast with the morning session starting at 9:00.
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