Bird flu pandemic preparedness

After speaking with an association executive about her organization's plan to deal with a potential bird flu pandemic, my colleague Mike Bassett sent me these facts to ponder:

According to a survey commissioned by the European Union, 70 percent of businesses worldwide believe a pandemic will damage profitability, 47 percent have a continuity plan in place, but just 17 percent have budgeted for pandemic preparedness. Breaking it down further, 25 percent of Asian companies have budgeted for pandemic preparedness, compared to just 12 percent for European, and a measly 7 percent for American companies.





A Deloitte Touche survey of American executives found that two-thirds have done little to no pandemic preparedness and most have no one in charge of such planning. On the other hand, a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong of 80 executives there found that almost every company had a specific individual in charge of Avian flu policy.

Not to be alarmist, but are you ready for the worst?