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Covid-19: Elements of a Scenario

Emergency Planning

It is now more than ten years since there was a general push to induce countries to plan for pandemics (WHO 2005). About the same time, 2007, Dr Michael Leavitt of the US Department of Health and Human Services wrote: "We don't know when a pandemic will arrive. Major epidemics and pandemics (what is the difference?)

Pandemic 130
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Interpreting Covid-19 as a Disaster

Emergency Planning

Image: US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases In terms of its scope, Covid-19 is like no other disaster that has occurred in the last 100 years, since, in fact, the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 killed more people than both world wars combined, and contributed to the end of the First World War.

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State of the Nation - a UK Perspective on Covid-19

Emergency Planning

Since the start of the crisis, I have constantly affirmed that the key to understanding the effects of this pandemic is the UK Government's failure to give adequate weight to emergency planning and management (Alexander 2020a, 2020b). There were major exercises on pandemics in 2005, 2007 and 2016. Exercise Cygnus Report.