In 1918, pandemic influenza cast a dark shadow across New Zealand, killing 9000 people in a matter of weeks, including 1000 in Otago and Southland.
With memories of that grim centenary fresh in people’s minds, it is no surprise that both the Government and the general public have swiftly taken notice of the emergence of "2019-nCoV" — the as yet not formally named novel coronavirus which has killed dozens of people in China.
In 1918, influenza spread as quickly as land and sea transport could take it; today, jet aircraft can and have taken this new potentially fatal disease to all corners of the planet within days.
China has already shut down much of its domestic and international travel routes as the threat posed by the virus is better understood.
In New Zealand, as of yesterday, flights from China are being greeted at Auckland and Christchurch airports by public health officials as a preliminary screening process to hopefully prevent anyone affected by the virus from entering the country.
While an important and useful first step, there is a limit to how effective this will be.
There are several different types of coronaviruses, which cause a range of respiratory illnesses, including the common cold.
A blood test to identify the novel coronavirus has yet to arrive in New Zealand, so the potential exists for passengers with an ailment other than the one in question to be needlessly detained.
Also, as scientists learn more about the novel coronavirus it has now been discovered that the virus can be spread during its incubation period, that being before tell-tale symptoms start to show — potentially rendering useless any border checking system.
However, there is more to New Zealand’s response to this illness than deploying public health nurses, updating websites and distributing pamphlets.
In 2018 hundreds of officials across multiple government departments took part in Exercise Pomare, a national pandemic preparedness practice run.
The exercise, carried out as four separate workshops over eight months, was deemed a success, but a debrief report highlighted the need for a range of organisations to update their business continuity plans in the event of major events, and for the national influenza pandemic plan to be updated to better reflect central government agency’s roles.
Things have not yet reached that level of emergency, but the authorities are up to date concerning what will need to happen if they do.
The pandemic plan defines what 30 government agencies and departments would do if the worst came to the worst, and includes around 180 key decisions officials will have to make, sometimes on multiple occasions, if a disease does spread through New Zealand.
Well before we get to that stage though, the Ministry of Health has a range of response plans for disease outbreaks of varying degrees of severity and extent already in place, and district health boards and primary health organisations alike regularly practice for such events.
Unlike 1918, New Zealand will not be making its response to this viral threat in an unco-ordinated and ad hoc basis.
Health Minister David Clark described yesterday’s border control announcement as cautious and precautionary, and this seems a reasonable approach to take to managing a disease which as yet has affected few people worldwide and, while it has reached Australia, is not yet in New Zealand.
National’s claim that the Government response was "sorely lacking" was needlessly inflammatory, especially given that the moves its health spokesman was calling for were already in train.
A calm, measured approach is entirely practical at this point, especially with the knowledge that well-formulated plans have already been laid should worse eventualities come to pass.
