Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns in Toronto, said a flu pandemic could potentially result in a 25 to 35 per cent absentee rate at workplaces across the country...In fairness, it's difficult for a given business to divert resources away from its ongoing operations in order to perpare for what's only a possible outcome. But the lack of private-sector preparation should highlight the fact that governments can't count on other actors being ready in the all-too-foreseeable event that a pandemic does hit...and they thus need to be all the more prepared themselves.
As a virus spreads, Cooper predicts travel could be restricted, as the flow of goods and products across borders becomes limited. And manufacturing plants that rely on a global supply chain could be forced to cut back...
The challenge facing companies during a pandemic would be to keep operating. But Jason Myers, a senior economist with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said most operations just don't have the capacity to carry on through a crisis.
"I think for the majority of businesses in Canada, it's not on the radar," said Myers.
All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Preparing for the worst
Much has been made of the potential effects of a flu pandemic, and I don't have much to add to the great work done at the flu wiki in an effort to prepare communities for the potential harms. But CTV has a useful commentary on how the effects of a pandemic could cut far into our economic well-being - and how few businesses are prepared for the problem:
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