With a second outbreak of swine flu possibly lurking just around the corner, New York City is preparing for the worst.
Government efforts are in place to aid local health clinics in launching flu centers and mass immunizations, and district officials have declared public school shutdowns to be an absolute last resort.
After the pandemic struck in April—killing 50 people in the city and leading to large-scale drops in school attendance—the city spent the summer collaborating with different agencies for a combat plan against a potential resurgence of the H1N1 virus this fall.
The strategy, announced on Sept.1, includes making flu vaccines available to all public elementary school students, creating a “one-stop influenza Web portal” to help New Yorkers find local help easily, launching a large public awareness campaign, and lastly, developing specific treatment sites in health clinics.
“We can’t predict this year’s flu season, but we can make sure that City government is fully prepared for whatever happens,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement last week.
To prevent emergency care centers from overcrowding in a possible round two of swine flu, some local clinics said they have communicated with the New York State Department of Health about setting up flu centers to ease the burden at nearby hospitals.
Daniel Baxter, chief medical officer of the Ryan Community Health Network—which has a clinic on 97th Street and a new site in Harlem—said that health care centers are prepared to set up a flu-specific operation. “We are absolutely as ready as anyone can be,” he said, adding that the Ryan Network would be particularly beneficial should emergency rooms become “once again logged with worried wells.”
Baxter said that his clinics are prepared to increase their free immunization efforts on a large scale. At the same time, the Ryan Network has also been expanding its training on triage efforts to provide the most efficient care to those most seriously in need.
“In the spring, we did have somewhat of a surge at all of our centers,” said Jackie Lomtevas, vice president of facilities and services at Community Healthcare Network, which has a center on 115th Street in Harlem. “I would expect at the start of school, that might tend to surge again.”
Lomtevas said that they also hope to offer free vaccines in a month, which she added they have never done in the past.
On the school front, with closing as a “last resort,” local principals applauded efforts of the district and the Department of Health while also admitting their anxiety over potential outbreaks. “Child care is a big problem for families,” Virginia Pepe, principal of P.S. 163 on 97th Street, said. “I can empathize with not wanting to close schools.”
Pepe said that she has definitely heard concern from families, adding, “The city—based on prior experience—will be in a better position to evaluate the situation.”
At Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, where several hundred students were absent in the spring, principal Gregory Hodge said that he plans to hold several informational assemblies on the flu and general hygiene to help thwart another panic. “This is about more aggressive education in school,” he said.
“People who have babysitting services are able to respond more easily,” Hodge said. “But poorer families will be more pressed.” In the spring, a lot of his students wound up waiting many hours in hospitals and were never actually seen.
Baxter stated that he hopes that people learn not to be afraid. “It is not any more dangerous than influenza,” he said.
“There has not yet been a panic and hopefully there won’t be,” Baxter added. “But what we don’t know frightens us.”
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