A Call for Joint Action

[Guest]

June 21, 2007

Dear Friends,

With a flu pandemic looming and public preparedness as yet woefully insufficient, it is the perfect moment for us to make plans for how we respond to the next upsurge in flu activity sure to occur this coming winter.

I have visited many flu sites and forums over the years and have left a few posts as well. What impresses me most is the depth and breadth of occupations, experience, and excellent advice I have encountered. The sum total of knowledge found on the flu sites and within the forums about the virus, pandemics, and pandemic preparedness is truly astounding. That this knowledge has been made available for free to anyone with Internet access is a remarkable achievement and testament to your collective concern and dedication to the task of offering information and guidance to others.

Still, all too many people remain unaware of the gravity of the pandemic threat we face and unprepared to survive should threat become reality. A critical challenge remains for those of us who are pandemic-aware: has the time come for us to take responsibility for informing the public directly about the risk and the need to prepare? For the most part, we have been waiting and hoping that our governments would do this, but so far their response has not been adequate in the opinion of a great many of us.

In my view, the answer to this question is yes! It is to meet this challenge that I propose extending the work of our individual online communities by engaging in joint initiatives designed to catalyze public pandemic awareness and preparedness. Acting as one on a very specific agenda that we can all agree on will allow us to significantly leverage our talents and strengths.

For an ambitious idea like this to work, it must be guided by the shared wisdom of a diverse but informed and caring community - of people like you. The accompanying Call for Joint Action is a document that attempts to spell out the rationale and mission of what a larger Pandemic-Aware Community (PAC) might become. The focus is on increasing awareness and providing sound and sensible preparation information, a mission we can all affirm as vital. The purpose of this initiative is not to undermine or supplant the fine work of the moderators and active members of the various flu sites within the community. On the contrary, as conceived, all PAC activity will be entirely complementary to the outstanding efforts already developed.
At the moment, the PAC initiative is at the idea stage. While I have kicked this notion around with a few folks within the PAC, the time has come to formally present it to the community as a whole for your consideration.

If this idea receives the support of the PAC as I hope it will, the next step will be together to discuss some ideas about how the mission can be brought about. To facilitate this, I have setup a shared venue on Google Groups. If you wish to take part in the discussion and influence the course the PAC takes, please visit this link <http> to request an invitation to the group. This will be an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in getting involved in the mission of the PAC in a meaningful way to have an opportunity to do so.

Please do me the favor of reading and discussing the Call the Joint Action. It my sincere intention that this initiative will become a way for all members of the wider PAC to come together and act in concert within the limited scope of the defined mission outlined in the document. After reading about this, I hope you will decide to join this group effort.

Sincerely,

Grattan Woodson, MD

[Guest]

I have been trying to add the Call for Joint Action to this excellent site but am being stopped out by the site's software. You can view the entire document by going to Google Groups and search for PandemicAC. Then, request an invitation to join the group. This will be sent to you by the group moderator and you will be able to access the site, read the CFJA and if desired make your comments known about the idea.

Best regards,

The Doctor

Grattan Woodson, MD

[Readymom]

Good Morning Dr. Woodson and Welcome!

I have NO idea what is stopping your post from being accepted. This is the first that I have heard of such a problem, from another poster. There have been a couple of times, when I have tried to post and there was a word in a sentence that seemed to be filtered and the sites program wouldn't allow the post till I narrowed down the paragraph and offending word (even though the word wasn't offensive at all, just a sensitive program, it seems).

As you can see this is an 'All Inclusive' site that is trying to pull together all the information found in all forums, discussion sites and other sites of information. I think you may already see that this 'Community Awareness & Preparation' site is already putting into place some of what you are trying to accomplish.

I hope that you and your associates will feel free to add to any Emergency Home Preparation suggestions that we have here, which will enrich the research of those exploring our combined resources. -k

[Readymom]

Dr. Woodson's Call for Joint Action can be found at the following sites (with resulting discussion):

CurEvents.com:
http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread. ... light=Inky

FluTrackers.com:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showth ... light=Inky

Pandemic Flu Information:
http://www.singtomeohmuse.com/viewtopic ... 1125#41125

Plan For Pandemic:
http://planforpandemic.com/viewtopic.php?t=9114

[Guest]

Thanks ReadyMom. This is one of the best home preparation sites on the Internet if not the best. I am very impressed with the material you have assembled here. This is really a wonderful resource. Thank you so much for agreeing to support the Joint Action Initiative. It would be very valuable to have you and your forum member's input during the discussion phase of this idea. Please consider joining the PandemicAC Google Groups discussion to take part.

Grattan Woodson, MD