Wall Street’s double calamity

With Wall Street layoffs on track to surpass 200,000, it may be worth asking: How many of the newly unemployed were involved in pandemic planning?

I can’t answer that question. But I’ll bet that consolidations, reorganizations and cutbacks have scrambled pandemic planning in financial services.

The risk remains. The United Nations released this week an updated report on pandemic planning, “Fourth Global Progress Report on Responses to Avian Influenza and State of Pandemic Readiness.” [105-page pdf here]

Bottom line: Dr. David Nabarro, United Nations System Influenza Coordinator, said the threat of an influenza pandemic was still the same as it was three or four years ago. And there still remains a lot of work to do on planning.

Financial services firms in the U.S. have developed plans to deal with a pandemic, but that work was done last year, during happier times. The new administration will have to find out how much of that work remains intact.

The U.S. policy under the Bush administration has been to encourage, and not force, pandemic planning by the private sector. Now, that Congress seems set to bring new regulation to financial services, should it mandate disaster planning for this industry and other critical industries as well?

Will the next administration demand that critical industries produce plans and demonstrate that they work? Or will the plan be to see how screwed up things get and then hold a hearing to assess the damage?

Pandemic planning is off the news media radar but the flu bloggers are still doing their admirable work and may be the best early warning and education system available.

My list below of news and blogs sites is far from complete so please check out blogrolls. There are many other worthwhile sources of information. Please add recommendations in the comments section.

H5N1
Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP)
Avian Flu Diary
Bird Flu Breaking News
Effect Measure
Preparedness and Response