A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. A pandemic flu occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity, and for which a vaccine does not exist or is not readily available. The disease spreads easily person-to-person, causing serious illness, and can sweep across the country and around the world in a very short time. Health officials are concerned that the current avian “bird” flu which is circulating widely could mutate to a new strain of flu that humans have no natural immunity against. The World Health Organization has said that a bird flu pandemic could infect 25-30 percent of the world’s population.
In order for a pandemic to occur, three conditions must be met. Two of these have occurred with the avian flu. A new influenza virus subtype has emerged, H5N1 avian virus and the virus has infected humans. The last condition, virus transmission easily among humans has NOT occurred.
“It seems so surreal that we have to think about pandemic flu,” said Michelle Yales, Chief Operating Officer at First Choice Credit Union in West Palm Beach, FL. Yales’ Board of Directors was adamant that the credit union put a plan in place to address pandemic flu. “After we began to delve into it, various aspects began to hit home,” Yales said. “Relating a pandemic to the chicken pox sort of brings it into focus. It is like how chicken pox was once upon a time. With chicken pox you were isolated, both you and people you counted on. Keeping this in mind it becomes something that we can all understand and begin to plan for,” Yales explained.
So what is the REALITY of pandemic flu and why is everyone so concerned? History has shown us that global pandemics occur about three times each century. In the 20th century some readers will recall the Hong Kong Flu of 1968, and the Asian Flu of 1959 which were considered pandemic but were much more quickly controlled and much less virulent than the avian flu currently being watched. The avian flu appears similar to the worst pandemic of the last century, the Spanish Flu of 1918 which killed 500,000 people in the U.S. and 50 million worldwide. The annual flu that we are all familiar with affects 5-20% of the U.S. population, but experts predict pandemic flu could have an infection rate of 25-50 percent of the population. And unlike annual flu, with pandemic flu all age groups may be at risk for infection, not just the typical “at risk” groups. Otherwise fit adults could actually be at relatively greater risk, based on patterns of previous epidemics. A 1918-type pandemic in the near future is projected to result in 85 million severe illnesses and up to 2.5 million deaths. The pandemic would likely last for several months, and no vaccine could be available for at least six to nine months.
Staying in Business
Most credit union disaster recovery people are used to thinking about getting systems back up and running after a disaster, or going someplace temporary to work. The usual business continuity assumptions don’t work in the case of pandemic. Pandemic flu demands a different set of continuity assumptions since it will be widely dispersed geographically and potentially arrive in waves that could last several months at a time. For credit unions, planning for pandemic means primarily addressing staffing problems as well as the fact that partners and vendors the credit union relies on will also have staffing problems. Adding an unknown element into the absentee rate is the fact that children will be the largest carriers and spreaders of the virus. It is possible and even likely that governments could close schools in order to try to slow the spread of the virus. This could in turn, cause the absence of even more employees.
Ken Schroeder, Southeast Corporate’s Vice President of Business Continuity has been speaking to credit union chapters across the southeast over the past year about “Pandemic Planning.” According to Schroeder, some credit unions are “playing ostrich.” Schroeder, a former search, rescue and mobility planner with the U.S. Air Force speaks with authority. “The idea of pandemic for some credit unions seems just too big to handle, but it is not too big to handle. You basically need to consider how you would operate your credit union with one third of your people being gone, as well as plan measures to prevent the remaining staff from getting sick.”
KerCheww! Gesundheit! During Schroeder’s presentation if someone sneezes he walks up to them and hands them a dust mask and set of rubber gloves. After this happens several times he is out of masks and gloves and the point hits home - he doesn’t have enough stuff to go around. He explains, “Credit unions suddenly realize we have to plan and prepare if we are going to have enough stuff to go around.”
Schroeder worked with First Choice Credit Union and helped them write a business continuity plan for pandemic. “A lot of the points Ken made hit home with us,” said Michelle Yales. “We know our members rely on us for services and cash. So we went on to ask ourselves, if members have to go without pay, will we be prepared to assist them? How will we keep our staff from getting infected?” These were just a few of the things First Choice needed to consider.
Schroeder points out that some of what exists at the credit union can contribute to controlling the spread of viruses. He says that safeguards such as robbery guard glass can translate into sneeze guards for tellers in a pandemic situation. Sometimes a credit union already has its administration and back office staff separated from staff that have member contact, and if they don’t they have time to make plans to separate them. He points out the need for social distancing – seating employees with 6-10 feet of space separating them.
Yales explains what happened after First Choice completed their plan. “After we wrote our plan we had an infectious disease nurse come in to speak to our staff. She talked about things we can do everyday, not just in the case of pandemic. As a result we implemented a very aggressive sanitizing program throughout the credit union with an extra focus on areas where staff have member facing contact. We wipe down personal work spaces and high traffic areas with Clorox wipes and use hand sanitizers. We thought in terms of everyday, and let’s keep our staff healthy.”
Money is Such a Dirty Thing
Staff at Coastline Credit Union in Jacksonville, FL approached the credit union’s management because of their concerns about handling money all day long and the potential of taking germs home to their families. “We did not set out to deal with pandemic flu,” said Donna Johnson, Coastline’s Vice President of Operations. “Our actions came about in response to concerns raised by our staff. It has turned out to be a great idea.”
Coastline provided tellers with pump bottles of hand sanitizers at their stations to help guard against the flu or other infections. Before leaving for the day, staff members disinfect office equipment with a bleach-based solution. The credit union says its tellers serve approximately 80-150 people a day, making it relatively easy to transfer viruses via the deposit slips and other paper being handled.
“We rely on our staff heavily and appreciated their concerns about staying healthy in an environment where they are handling money all day long and are in direct contact with members,” said Johnson. “ We try to keep areas clean and wash hands often. Otherwise every time one person gets sick it spreads throughout the entire workplace.”
Coastline has also taken additional steps to cut down on staff handling of money. They are adding cash recyclers as branches are remodeled. A De La Rue cash recycler has just been installed in Coastline’s downtown branch. The cash recycler not only dispenses cash but recycles it and interfaces with their Symitar software. “Money almost never touches staff hands, just initially when the machine is loaded,” said Johnson. “Our staff is not handling money nearly as much and we’re looking forward to adding the machines to other branches as they are remodeled.
Be Prepared
Credit unions should draft pandemic plans now, if they haven’t already,” according to the World Health Organizations Global Influenza Preparedness Plan. Planning for pandemic should be simpler than planning for other disasters because credit unions should have full access to all of their facilities. Again, the absence of critical employees will be the real problem. Southeast’s Schroeder suggests writing a plan that addresses the key phases of a pandemic: 1. Pre-planning, 2. It’s starting, 3. People are out, 4. Recovery and getting ready for the next wave. “Don’t just view this as planning for pandemic,” says First Choice’s Michelle Yales. “It is simply a new way of protecting staff and their families from any disease…from the common cold all the way up to pandemic flu. We’ve found that it just makes sense to start now taking the steps we can to provide our employees with a healthy work environment TODAY, regardless of the pandemic flu.”
Now that government officials have declared the Swine Flu a pandemic, you can view the official government information at the federal government’s consolidated pandemic influenza website www.pandemicflu.gov and the World Health Organization www.who.org.
Southeast Corporate stands available to help any CU in writing or reviewing their pandemic plans or to assist them by facilitating a pandemic exercise. Contact Ken Schroeder at 1-800-342-0203 ext. 4125.
