Simulated Flu Outbreak Teaches Real Lessons

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 16, 2007 - About 1,000 Pentagon employees participated in a two-day pandemic influenza exercise that concluded yesterday to prepare portions of the Defense Department for a possible mass outbreak of deadly flu virus. Personnel deemed "infected" worked from home, and "healthy" participants in the building wore masks over their faces and maintained six-foot barriers from coworkers while working through a script of challenging tasks.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon made officials realize that "we would have to be prepared to carry on our mission, perform our day-to-day functions in situations and circumstances we didn't really anticipate," said Michael L. Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

"That was reinforced for us with Hurricane Katrina, and that whole set of activities -- where accounting for people and being able to conduct your operations when you've lost some people -- was also very critical," he said.

Pandemic flu is a fast-spreading infectious disease that causes a global outbreak, or pandemic, of serious illness that could sicken or kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, according to the U.S. government's pandemic flu Web site. For example, the 1918 flu epidemic killed more than a half million Americans. Furthermore, it could take six to eight months to develop a vaccine for pandemic flu after it strikes.

At the exercise command center here, organizers followed the adage, "plan for the worst, and hope for the best," displaying the faces of department directors killed or incapacitated by the simulated flu outbreak. Charts detailed personnel strength of each department, with Defense Human Resources suffering 16 employees killed within the flu's first hours.

A doomsday scenario forced personnel to adapt quickly to achieve a scripted series of tasks:

-- Reorganize each department according to orders of succession;

-- Use a phone tree to call employees;

-- Strive for 100-percent accountability despite BlackBerry devices being rendered useless due to a network crash;

-- Compile status reports of personnel and family members killed; and

-- Send letters of condolence where necessary.

Exercise manager Kathleen Ott, director of talent, acquisition and management for the Office of the Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness, said the exercise has prepared the department to carry out essential functions in the event of a pandemic.

Ott said the department identified various weaknesses as early as April, when the planning phase began.

"We got a working group of action officers from each of the directorates together, and we started with the very basics. Did we have a recall roster? Did we have current organization charts? Did we have a list of our mission-essential functions?" she said. "We found that as we were developing those documents that we didn't really have everything that we needed to have in place."

As a result, Personnel and Readiness developed a recall roster listing current phone numbers for all employees and up-to-date organization charts indicating orders of succession and delegations of authority should current directors become incapacitated. The department also documented mission-essential functions.

Officials at the Defense Department and other federal agencies that are conducting similar exercises will share lessons learned from their respective demonstrations, Ott said.

"We thought there would be value in doing an exercise within (Personnel and Readiness) so that we could capture lessons learned to help us better frame policies we would be sending out to the field," she said.

John Winkler, acting principal deputy of Reserve Affairs, coordinated the exercise on behalf of Reserve Affairs.

Winkler said practicing "social distancing" -- maintaining 6 feet of space from coworkers -- and wearing the required face mask for the duration of the work day was an adjustment. As he spoke, his breath escaped through gaps near the top of his mask, and condensation began to form on his spectacles.

"We started off by testing our phone trees last night and we learned, for example, that despite all of our careful preparation we still have old phone numbers in (electronic) contact lists," he said. "That's exactly the kind of thing we want to find out. Even though we thought we had figured it all out, what did we miss? That's part of the education."

The exercise's interactive nature makes it a more effective means of teaching than distributing dry, text-based guidelines, he said.

"This exercise has certainly caused people to think harder about what it might really be like," said Winkler, his eyeglass lenses now completely opaque. "When you walk around with masks and have to remind yourself to stay 6 feet away from everybody else, it adds another layer of reality to it all."

Department Readies Pandemic Flu Guidebook for Civilians

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

May 29, 2007 – The Defense Department is preparing a pandemic flu guide for civilian managers and rank-and-file employees, a senior official said. The Defense Department released its Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan in April, Patricia S. Bradshaw, deputy undersecretary of defense for civilian personnel policy, said May 25 in an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service.

The department's plan is part of the president's initiative to prepare the nation for a potential mass outbreak of deadly flu virus.

"And now, we're going to top that off with a DoD civilian human resources guide with a target audience of managers and employees," Bradshaw said.

She said the guide will outline specific things that managers, supervisors and employees need to do to prepare themselves for a possible flu pandemic or any other type of crisis. It's to be issued within the next four to six weeks, she said, and will be available on the Defense Department's pandemic flu Web site, fhp.osd.mil/aiWatchboard.

Pandemic flu is a fast-spreading human flu that causes a global outbreak, or pandemic, of serious illness that could sicken or kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, according to the U.S. government's pandemic flu Web site. For example, the 1918 flu epidemic killed more than half a million Americans.

Any challenges inherent in preparing the department's roughly 600,000 civilian employees for a possible flu epidemic or other crisis aren't dissimilar to those faced by the private-sector work force, Bradshaw noted.

"I think the challenges are not unlike any (other) work force," Bradshaw explained. "If we have a crisis such as a pandemic, the real challenge here is maximizing social distancing as the preferred technique to employ, because it's a contagious disease."
Increased shift work, phone usage, teleconferencing and working from home are among the options DoD could employ to continue operations in the event a flu pandemic reaches the United States, Bradshaw said.

"You're trying to figure out how to keep people safe and well and, at the same time continue the operations of the department," Bradshaw said. "And so, we'll really be looking at ways to do that."

Federal government guidance to state and local authorities has recommended the launch of pandemic flu preparedness exercises, she said.

"You can test to see where your gaps are and (where) your potential problems would be," Bradshaw explained, noting the federal government and the military already have conducted some exercises with civilian authorities.

The Defense Department plans to continue to provide work and pay to its civilian employees during a potential pandemic flu crisis, Bradshaw said. Again, the focus will be on employing social distancing to minimize potential devastating effects during a pandemic, she said.

"We're going to tell you, 'Please, don't come to work,'" Bradshaw said. Such a practice, she said, minimizes the spread of disease during a pandemic.

Additionally, Defense Department civilian managers need to determine how they'll continue performing their organization's core functions during a pandemic, Bradshaw said.

"What are the mission-essential functions that absolutely need to be done?" Bradshaw asked, especially tasks that can be accomplished online from home.

"The managers really need to think through what kind of work can be done away from the work site," she said. "Our goal is to ensure that our employees, to the maximum extent possible, can continue to work during such a pandemic."

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Information Key in Stemming Potential Pandemic Flu Outbreak

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

May 9, 2007 – Servicemembers and their families should be aware of Defense Department efforts to prepare the force and assist the nation in a possible outbreak of pandemic influenza, a senior official said. "You can never be ready enough. We have a plan in place," Ellen P. Embrey, deputy assistant secretary of defense for force health protection and readiness, said during a joint Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service interview.

The Defense Department is in the process of rolling out its Pandemic Influenza Implementation plan, which is part of the president's initiative to prepare the nation for a potential mass outbreak of deadly flu virus.

"It's important to know that (the plan) is there, to get information about it, and to know your role in it," Embrey said.

Military and civilian leaders, in particular, need to emphasize to rank-and-file employees the important role that good public hygiene, including the regular washing of hands, plays in preventing influenza or limiting its scope, Embrey said.

Pandemic flu is a fast-spreading human flu that causes a global outbreak, or pandemic, of serious illness that could sicken or kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, according to the U.S. government's pandemic flu Web site. For example, the 1918 flu epidemic killed millions of Americans.

It could take six to eight months to develop a vaccine for pandemic flu after it strikes, Embrey pointed out.

As a rule of thumb, sick people should stay at home if they have the flu or any other malady, Embrey said. This practice helps to prevent passing illnesses to others and speeds patients' recovery times, she added.

"Don't come to work when you have the 'sniffles,' especially during the flu season," Embrey emphasized.

Currently there's no pandemic flu. However, medical experts have been closely observing cases of avian, or bird, flu across Asia and parts of the Middle East. One bird-flu virus in particular, known as H5N1, is especially deadly to fowl. It can be spread to humans, who have no natural immunity to it.

There's currently no vaccine for avian flu, and more than 170 people worldwide have died from it, according to the World Health Organization.

Servicemembers and their families, along with other young adults, could be especially susceptible to a pandemic flu outbreak, Embrey noted.

"If we go based on history when (flu) pandemics occurred, they actually attack the young, healthy adults and young children," Embrey said. "Those are not usually the ones you see getting the regular, seasonal flu."

The seasonal flu is a respiratory illness that, like deadlier forms of the virus, can be spread by human-to-human contact. Seasonal flu particularly affects the very young and older adults. However, most people have some immunity to seasonal flu, and a vaccine is available.

Embrey reiterated the importance of informing young servicemembers and their families about how to confront a potential outbreak of pandemic flu.

"We want to make sure that people in our (military) population, which is mostly a young, healthy population, understand that they are vulnerable and do take appropriate precautions, particularly before a pandemic-specific vaccine is available," Embrey said.

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DoD Announces Release of Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza

The Department of Defense announced today the release of its implementation plan for preparing, planning and responding to a potential pandemic influenza outbreak.

This plan implements the White House "National Pandemic Influenza Strategy Implementation Plan." It provides strategic guidance to all Department of Defense components for preparation and response to an outbreak of pandemic influenza.

The plan can be found on the Web at: http://fhp.osd.mil/aiWatchboard/pdf/DoD_PI_Implementation_Plan_August_2006_Public_Release.pdf .

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