Scott McPherson's Web Presence

One would be hard-pressed to find anyone as tuned in to the avian influenza situation as Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture, Charles Bronson.  A former state senator from the Vero Beach area, Commissioner Bronson was appointed Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services in 2001 after the departure of his immediate predecessor, Bob Crawford, to the Citrus Commission.  He has been re-elected twice by massive margins.

It is easy to understand why.  He absorbs information like a sponge, he makes excellent decisions, and he has not allowed the trappings of his office to change him as a person.  In fact, the last substantive conversation I had with him was in the ice cream aisle of an Albertson's grocery store close to our homes.

It was the next-to-last substantive conversation I had with him -- on the floor of the Florida House -- that really floored me.  It was late April, 2007, and I sat down next to him to talk him up on the topic of bird flu.

It was he who talked me up!  Among the things I learned:

• Bronson hired the top avian influenza vet in the FDA away from them, following that person's work on the Delmarva Peninsula AI outbreak of a few years ago. 
• Bronson told me he wanted the nation's best bird flu vet working for him, because Florida has a significant poultry industry and he did not want to see that industry wiped out by bird flu. 
• That showed great wisdom and a desire to obtain the best minds, regardless of cost.
• Likewise, he began explaining past AI and equine influenza and equine encephalitis problems.  He also spoke about detection efforts and problems with same.  He knows his stuff, this Commissioner.

I was comforted by Bronson's knowledge of the threat and impressed with his methods to move forward to combat it, if and when it comes.  I am truly proud of my friend.

At the left are two charts.  One is the HHS "Wildfowl Flyways of North America" that we are all familiar with. 

Now look at the second chart, "Commercial Poultry in Florida' and see the areas of commonality.  No wonder Bronson wanted the best person he could lure away from the FDA to help with current and future AI efforts in Florida.

Commissioner Bronson takes a down-to-earth approach to things, so it is no surprise his agency's Pandemic Influenza Agriculture Planning Toolkit reflects his approach.  Written in plain, everyday English, this 28-page guide is an easy read.  It also seeks to both educate and urge preparedness without sugar-coating the situation.  This is both welcome and refreshing.  It tells things like they are, or will be.  For example, in the subheading "Vaccines," it mentions flatly that there will either be no vaccine, or vaccine will be in exceedingly short supply.  Likewise, it makes short shrift of antivirals, barely mentioning them other than to say there will be a "limited amount".  Under "Risk Communications," the Toolkit says that "sustaining public confidence over many months will be based on consistency" of the message during a pandemic.  Finally, under "Federal Assistance," the toolkit says there won't be any. 

The guide mentions that essential goods such as food and water, and services such as electricity could be compromised for several days or weeks. It then inserts the HHS panflu checklist for individuals and families, which we all are familiar with.  The guide next gives the HHS business panflu planning checklist.  Note the order of the inserts.  Placing families first, ahead of business concerns, is key to successful management of a pandemic.  I cannot tell you how many panflu plans I have seen (or COOP/DR plans, regardless of event) that fail because they fail to take reality into account.  that reality is that people's concern moves away from the business or corporation or government, and moves correctly into concern for family and the safety of the family.  Once the family is secure and safe, then the consciousness moves back to the workplace. 

Any pandemic plan that fails to take this concern into account will fail miserably.  ExxonMobil knows this, for example.  the ExxonMobil plan is to move entire families to its refineries and give them food, shelter and health care.  This, they recognize, is the only way they can ensure the continued refining of gasoline and other products during a pandemic.  

So the Florida agriculture plan rightly presents the order of concern during a pandemic; families, then the business.

After a page of links to Florida and Federal resources for pandemic information (regrettably, they forgot the Florida CIO Council's superb panflu Website, at bpr.state.fl.us/pandemic), the Toolkit moves into the Things Momma Taught Us:  Proper personal hygiene, covering your cough or sneeze, and keeping a respectable distance from strangers.  The Toolkit uses Red Cross and Florida Department of Health information to offer much more detailed family healthcare tips. These tips include making an electrolyte drink to hydrate victims, and how to reduce fever.  While good for the workplace, they are especially important for caregivers at home.  So the message to take care of family is doubly reinforced.  Seasonal vaccine steps are also encouraged, always important for poultry workers.

Closing out the Toolkit are two poster templates, provided by the Florida Department of Health.  They are good for seasonal flu and should be up in bathrooms and near time clocks all year round.

Things not in the Toolkit, but are covered by other Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services programs, include surveillance and management of poultry.  Bronson is a huge proponent of surveillance and, being a hunter himself, he works with other State agencies to make sure hunters report any suspicious behavior or activity by wildfowl.

This simple, easy-to-understand Toolkit should be printed and kept in a three-ring binder in everyone's home -- in a prominent place, close to medicines and food.  Perhaps Florida will use this guide as its default personal and business guide to send to every family in the state, as other states have done.

You can't get much better than this Toolkit as a starting point for family and business preparedness.