Want to See What Your City's Pandemic Plan Says? Good Luck

When I first became concerned about the virus in early January, I asked our business continuity leader (VP level) what our plans were in case things progressed like in China. I was told that we had a pandemic plan in place from 2009, and that "nothing had changed."

I'm well versed in DR/BCP, and I was amazed. The idea that someone thought our business operations, staffing, and technology hadn't changed in 11 years was amazing.

What's sad is that we once had a robust DR/BCP plan that was thoroughly tested on a yearly basis. Over the last 12 years that has slowly been whittled down as a waste of time and money. Kind of like how California had all those mobile hospitals that were dumped by Gov. Brown during a financial crisis.

Shortsightedness is the norm these days.

Chicago may have a "confidential" plan, but the State of Illinois has a public plan [1] which they finished updating March 2 after participating in the "Crimson Contagion" exercise last year. I personally think that the state and Chicago are handling things pretty well, relatively speaking [2].

> It’s not the only one being used. Local governments have their own playbooks, including Chicago, which honed its plan as part of a federal drill last year called Crimson Contagion that imagined a viral pandemic jumping from China to Chicago, then sweeping America. > Chicago’s health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, said the city made 2019 “the year for pandemic planning,” modeling various scenarios to see how the city and its hospitals could manage.

[1] http://www.dph.illinois.gov/sites/default/files/publications...

[2] https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-illinois-pande...

I find it hard to believe that any "confidential" plan exists.

Ive seen it. Its got one word.

"Pray"