York Town News
Preparing for the worst:
Officials plan for possible pandemic
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - School Committee Chairwoman Patty Hymanson summed up the sentiment shared by town and school officials alike when considering the possibility of an influenza pandemic: "Plan for the worst and hope for the best."And that, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione and Town Manager Rob Yandow explained, is exactly what is being done.
When the School Committee met last Wednesday evening, July 12, Scipione apprised the board on a coordinated effort by the town, schools and York Hospital to plan for a worst-case scenario if the United States in general and York in particularly should fall victim to a pandemic.
A pandemic is defined as an epidemic occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population.
For example, as Yandow recently pointed out in discussing the work being done to plan for the possibility, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic took the lives of approximately 40 million people throughout the world.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, in the United States alone, up to 200 million people will be infected, 50 million people will require outpatient care, two million people will he hospitalized and between 100,000 and 500,000 persons will die," Yandow noted.
Together, Scipione told the School Committee, the hospital, School Department and town are taking a close look at how to respond to the potential crisis.
"Each of those units, the hospital, the town and the schools, have each created a leadership team around this issue," Scipione explained.
Meanwhile, an individual in each school building has been designated to work with Scipione and School Department Physician Dr. Michael Gauthier on planning for the future from the school perspective.
School Committee Vice Chairman Marilyn Zotos pointed out recent publications from the Maine School Board Association advising just such actions be undertaken before a potential pandemic hits the United States.
Hymanson, too, praised Scipione, Yandow and those involved for their foresight in preparing now.
"It's uncharted territory. It's the element of the unknown. … But we need to be thinking through what our response will be, how we're going to address this," Scipione said.
In other crises, Scipione said, York could rely on its neighboring communities to provide assistance.
"That's not going to be viable, because if we go through this, everyone else is going to be going through it," he explained.
The goal, he said, is to be proactive, to educate parents and the community "and hopefully get out ahead of it so people are not in a state where they don't understand it."
Speaking about the issue on Monday, July 17, Yandow echoed those words.
"It's critical. Typically, when you have some form of crisis or disaster you can rely on your neighbors for mutual aid, or the state or federal government," Yandow said, "but with the pandemic flu, the communities will have to be taking care of themselves."
Yandow said the leadership team will be meeting again in August to look at a larger plan to focus on the local level and also incorporate any possible assistance from state and local agencies.
As Scipione put it, "We're committed to not doing this in isolation."
More information on the potential pandemic is available online at www.maineflu.gov, www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/pandemic-influenza.html and www.pandemicflu.gov.
