Geodog

Mr. Gillmor, how do we get ready?

An open letter to Mr. Gillmor:

Dear Mr. Gillmor,

In your second to last weblog post, Mystery Pneumonia Grows More Worrisome, you talked about the mystery pneumonia, SARS, and closed by suggesting that "We'd better get ready".

As someone who two years ago stumbled across Laurie Garrett's great books, The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust, I have been acutely sensitized to the potential danger from epidemics, and the hollowing out of our public health infrastructure. I've been following the posts on the IP list with interest and fear, plus I've been reading other articles online and writing about them at Geodog's MT Weblog and The Midnight Blog. What isn't clear to me is what we can do to "get ready" for the epidemic.

It seems highly unlikely that anyone will find a treatment for the disease anytime in the near future, so what's left are the traditional public health measures that were developed in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Tracing sources of infection, and isolating and quarantine people who may have been exposed. On the public health front, it seems like we should be agitating to get our political and public health leaders to be much more aggressive about taking measures to contain the disease, such as shutting down plane flights from China and Southeast Asia until those countries manage to contain the epidemic. The one time that we want the government to act in an authoritarian manner, it is totally distracted by the War on Iraq.

On the personal level, it seems like we are almost at the point where we should start playing survivalist, buying up supplies and staying in our houses. Do it too soon, and you will be perceived as an idiot, like the people who were convinced that the world would come to an end with Y2K. Do it too late, and your chances of getting the disease will be significantly enhanced. Myself, I'm checking over our earthquake kit, adding gloves and surgical masks to it, and checking The CDC's SARS page and media sources, especially Laurie Garret, every day.

What are your recommendations for getting ready? What are you doing?

Thanks,