Monday, April 27, 2009

Will We Have a Pandemic?? And What Will it Cost??

The "Swine Flu" that we have all been reading about has already taken the lives of more than 150 innocent persons. While the epicentre of the Flu is in Mexico, it is spreading quickly in the United States and is slowly gaining a foothold in Europe.

The World Health Organization could decide to raise its pandemic alert level, currently at 3 on a scale of 1 to 6, to phase 4 or 5. If that happens we will all have to hunker down.

While the focus has been on human health and safety, and that is how it should be, we cannot ignore the potential economic fallout. Governments are asking their citizens to avoid travel. Such caution, while needed, will harm the economy. Let's not forget the huge price Canada paid during the Sars outbreak in lives lost and in lost economic activity. For a period of time in 2003, Toronto was a ghost town and was placed under "quasi-quarantine".

If this Swine Flu is not brought under swift control the depths of the "Great Recession" will have to be re-calculated.