I was astounded when I read this article that includes a 2 BILLION estimate on the number of H1N1 cases that the WHO is expecting. Even worse, at 30% of human population on the planet, many are calling that number conservative. Some members of the medical community say that 45-50% may be likely!

In either case, the good news is that SOME vaccine is likely to be available to those in the Northern Hemisphere before Autumn arrives. The bad news is that there will likely not be an abundance of it, and that means some will not have access.

This is where the DR/BC planning comes in. By now, you probably have heard a little bit about pandemic planning and hopefully have created processes for remote working, containing illness and ensuring that you can operate with reduced staff. If you haven’t done this yet, NOW IS THE TIME to get this started.

If you do already have a plan, now might be a good time to do some rudimentary testing. Maybe declare a couple of reduced staff days, test the load on the VPN and remote access servers and such. This testing effort will likely reveal a few holes in these plans, but it is much better to learn about them and mitigate them now than when the real thing is going on.

Clearly, from the evidence presented by the WHO, this is something we should be paying attention to. Those who lack the focus or resources to take it seriously may well find themselves in troubling times when the weather turns colder and folks in the office begin to sneeze….