As Americans await the release of the H1N1 vaccine, companies, families and individuals are doubling down their efforts to inoculate themselves against the possible pandemic. One industry preparing for a run on product is the last industry you?ll rely on: the funeral home.?
?We need to make sure we have enough embalming fluid and caskets,? said Mark Busch, of Busch funeral ho,mes. ?We need to make sure cemeteries have enough grave diggers.?
The Ohio Association of Funeral Directors now meets regularly to prepare for a potential once in a generation mortality spike.
Some projections show death rates could jump 15 to 30 percent over the next few months.
?Our current system is not adequately prepared to handle that,? Busch says.
Experts are looking at the bird flu of 1918 as their best guide. It was a U.S. pandemic that killed 195,000 people in October, 1918 alone.
Before the bird flu abated, it killed ten times the number of people that died in World War One.
In 1918 makeshift morgues, mandatory masks in public and 15 minute funerals became commonplace.
And while few expect that kind of surge, the Centers for Disease Control are expecting a tripling of flu fatalities this year.
Funeral homes aren?t the only ones facing a shortage of workers.
Companies like Target are keeping an eye on flu outbursts ? to help keep their workforce healthy.
Hospitals preparing outdoor triage stations, just as two-thirds of American companies saying: If half their workforce got sick, they?d have to close their doors.
Source: PandemicFluOnline.com
