MindSpinner

I haven’t been blogging enough to maintain the interest of my limited audience, so it’s more than a little ironic that I’m posting tonight something I wish the whole world would read, just as if the whole world would.

The Department of Health and Human Services has been conducting an experiment, likely a more volatile one than they anticipated.  They have created, at pandemicflu.gov, a Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog open to all but not incredibly well publicized. The blog is “a leadership forum on pandemic preparedness, which brings together highly influential leaders from the business, faith, civic and health care sectors to discuss how best to help Americans become more prepared for a possible influenza pandemic.” Ordinary citizens can choose to respond to blog posts via comments, and these comments, though moderated, have been quite frank, indeed passionate.  The “American public” responding is in fact a rather limited, self-selected group of people who have been following H5N1 closely, AKA the “flubies.” Nedra Weinrich, a social marketing consultant and guest blogger, has summed up what has turned out to be an epic struggle on the part of the flubies to wring from government sufficient truth to save lives in the case of a severe pandemic.  It’s a fascinating struggle. (And yes, I’ve thrown in my two cents.)  Read Weinrich’s blog entry summarizing the action to date and anticipating tomorrow’s big event, the Pandemic Flu Leadership Forum, where policy recommendations will be discussed.