Are we prepared for Avian ‘Bird’ Flu?

2 December 2005

Pandemic or ‘Plandemic’ – Are we prepared for Avian ‘Bird’ Flu?

Will business and families with a plan turn the possible pandemic into a ‘plandemic’?

‘Bird flu’ preparedness is an issue that New Zealand board game publisher, Matt Taylor, has serious concerns about. Taylor believes major financial institutions and government agencies are not sharing enough information on their contingency plans in the event of an ‘avian flu’ pandemic.

Will be the attitude of the financial sector to the pandemic be to foreclose on struggling companies and mortgage holders or will they use discretion due to the extreme circumstances? Many companies will face considerable strain, not least those that depend on a large workforce. Will governments legislate as they did in the depression era and provide debt relief or will they leave business and families to flounder?

Taylor asserts, "Financial institutions and the government agencies have a definite responsibility to be transparent with their plans. Whole communities may be effected by widespread business failure and unemployment. Unless business and families can plan, before disaster strikes, survival is far less assured."

"Isolation may well be the best defense against the an avian flu pandemic," says Taylor, "guarantees can’t be made that the drugs currently being supplied will actually work if and when the virus mutates. Families must be prepared to isolate themselves from traditional community activities for weeks on end."

"Some business’s will thrive in the face of this potential threat", says Taylor who markets the board game Breakscore on-line through the web site www.breakscore.com . "Board game publishing will boom as families will need something to keep themselves stimulated during isolation. Power is likely to be disrupted so it will be goodbye to the TV, the computer, electronic games and the stereo, which means board games will once again reign supreme in the family entertainment stakes."

Taylor attributes the recent upsurge in sales of Breakscore, to families preparing to spend more time at home. (see Scoop http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0511/S00015.htm) In the NZ Listener, David W Young, writes "every disaster – even one that devastates a local or regional economy – creates business winners." (see NZ Listener article http://www.listener.co.nz/default,5056.sm )

ENDS

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