"Flu pandemic" drills in schools...are you serious????

[bluedaisy]

I work in residence life at a small university, and apparently we are in the middle of a "flu pandemic" drill. The university has actually put together a committee to decide what would happen in the case of a flu pandemic.
Apparently this is a state wide initiative (VA) and is being organized by the emergency response services or something. The school gets email updates about what's been happening...the hypotheitcal story is that the flu strain enters the US through an athlete in Seattle coming back from China, then proceeds to spread throughout the country. When it hits our school, 60 students are infected (we have 600 undergrads) and 40-60% of them die. The school calls for a recess and all students are sent home.
The recess announcement is planned for the end of next week and they are actually going to send text and email messages to all the students, they may be called out of classes to "evacuate" and we'll have to check them out. We are currently collecting emergency evacuation info from all the students - addresses and phone numbers of where they would go if they had to evacuate.
Has anyone heard of anything like this??? This seems beyond ridiculous to me. First of all, this is the FLU - not the plague or anything. Why is there so much panic over the flu this year??? I've lived overseas for the past four years - is it like this every year? the amount of alarm over the flu seems completely out of proportion to the actual danger of the disease.
Also, a flu pandemic seems like a highly unlikely reality - is it really worth putting so much effort and even cancelling classes over this ridiculous hypothetical situation? I really hope these kinds of drills are not being done in elementary schools - I can see younger children becoming unnecessarily terrified as a result.
I wonder if these drills are somehow endorsed by pharma companies to increase panic and sell more vaccines. Of course the irony is that if the vaccines were actually effective, we wouldn't have to worry about flu pandemics.
Sorry, I just had to vent :

[Deborah]

this local article on the challenges of widespread disease outbreaks is pretty interesting: http://www.7dvt.com/2008dead-serious

apparently we are overdue for a huge flu epidemic

[Gitti]

Originally Posted by bluedaisy

...
I wonder if these drills are somehow endorsed by pharma companies to increase panic and sell more vaccines. :

Originally Posted by Deborah

...
apparently we are overdue for a huge flu epidemic

They will take care of that soon I fear.

[angie7]

That seems like overkill

[loveyourohana]

Beyond overkill... I would not be giving any numbers or addresses for this!!! This is seriously ridiculous!!!!!!

Maybe you need to form a enough is enough on fear tactics group... lol!

[momofmine]

Originally Posted by Deborah

this local article on the challenges of widespread disease outbreaks is pretty interesting: http://www.7dvt.com/2008dead-serious

apparently we are overdue for a huge flu epidemic

A quote from that article:

"When health officials talk about pandemic flu, they’re not referring to the seasonal flu that hits each winter and is generally preventable with a flu shot. Although seasonal flu is dangerous to a small percentage of the population, such as infants, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems, most people who contract it recover within two weeks with no lasting effects."

They say that a pandemic flu is something altogether different. So the flu shots won't even protect people against that. I'm sure that won't keep them from pushing it though. I went to the store yesterday and there was a big sign saying "flu shots next door - walk-ins welcome". Like you're going to get a haircut or something. They act like it's no big deal to inject that into your body.

[T&D2005]

Perhaps they will develop a miracle drug to re-establish trust in the public because there are so many questions.

[2lilsweetfoxes]

Evacuating people to go home in case of a pandemic...how is that even a good idea? They might have been exposed and are incubating the disease but be asymptomatic for now, in which the evacuation would just send a vector of infection to their hometowns and further spread the epidemic. A complete lockdown may be the better choice (even if it does tread on civil rights...which is another argument altogether).

[Claire and Boys]

totally agree.

my best friend as a manager in the NHS here in the UK and he sent me an email the other day saying they are expecting a pandemic, 30% will be hospitalized and millions will die. Right. I just said back "don't they say this every year?" He had no answer lol.

[mama2be11]

Originally Posted by bluedaisy

I can see younger children becoming unnecessarily terrified as a result.

That's what I was thinking. These kids are going to grow up being freaked out about the flu because of these scare tactics. They are training these kids to be paranoid over nothing. Measles and mumps were never a big deal and now look at how everyone thinks you're going to die if you get them. We saw it happen in my generation with the chicken pox and now it's happening with the flu among many others.

[Pariah]

Originally Posted by 2lilsweetfoxes

Evacuating people to go home in case of a pandemic...how is that even a good idea? They might have been exposed and are incubating the disease but be asymptomatic for now, in which the evacuation would just send a vector of infection to their hometowns and further spread the epidemic. A complete lockdown may be the better choice (even if it does tread on civil rights...which is another argument altogether).

That was my first thought...sounds like an awful idea.

[MilkTrance]

We are overdue for a flu pandemic just like certain areas are overdue for a major earthquake (I live on a fault line) just like the earth is overdue for an asteroid hitting it . . .

It doesn't hurt to practice emergency preparedness but sometimes it just sends people into panic mode instead of solution mode.

I would be the type to be sent into panic mode. Things like these "drills" do not make me feel more confident and safe.

Other people feel differently. It helps them feel more secure about possible scenarios and how they will deal with them.

These people are usually on the committees!