First of series of talks begin at Princeton Public Library
By: Courtney Gross
Imagine quarantined airports, overwhelmed hospitals and widespread power outages.
Picture eerily quiet workplaces empty of employees who sit at home for fear of falling ill.
Envision grocery stores looted of supplies as an influenza pandemic spreads from country to country and city to city.
This scenario, author and New York Times science and medical writer Gina Kolata said, is outlined in a 300-plus page report written by the federal government that depicts the fallout of a possible influenza pandemic.
Ms. Kolata, a Princeton Borough resident and former Board of Education member, made her presentation at the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday evening.
The scene depicted in the report, she said, resembles what happened during the influenza pandemic of 1918.
But it cannot be determined yet if history will repeat itself, she pointed out.
Flu, Ms. Kolata said, can be "nature’s weapon of mass destruction," although it "is hardly the only biological threat the government worries about."
Wednesday’s presentation, which questioned if an actual pandemic could occur from the notorious avian flu that has surfaced in Asia, was part of a three-part series hosted by the library and the Princeton Regional Health Commission titled, "Pandemic Influenza Threat: Understand and Prepare."
Ms. Kolata, the first of three speakers, said it is still too early to tell whether the United States could be threatened by the virus.
Just as anthrax anxiety and smallpox scares frightened some Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the avian flu threat could be as easily misrepresented, Ms. Kolata said. Only time will tell, she added.
"A question for a reporter as it was then, as it is now is, ‘How scared should you be?’" Ms. Kolata said.
Prior to Ms. Kolata’s presentation, David Henry, Princeton’s health officer, told the library’s packed Community Room that the Princeton Regional Health Commission and the library worked on the program last fall when the influenza threat began to emerge in the media.
The program, he added, is aimed to present information on individual and community preparedness.
"The goal is not to scare anyone, but to educate Princetonians and the public," Mr. Henry noted.
Ms. Kolata has written several books, including "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It." She has received numerous awards for her coverage of science and health issues and previously wrote for Science magazine.
During her presentation, Ms. Kolata contrasted and compared the 1918 influenza pandemic that is estimated to have killed millions to the current bird flu.
Although the influenza virus that devastated the world in 1918 shares several characteristics with the current avian flu both, for example, originated in birds Ms. Kolata said they are not entirely similar. Currently, she added, there is no predicting whether the current strand of bird flu, H5N1, will evolve into a pandemic.
"I would worry when scientists say it’s been spreading from person to person rapidly anywhere in the world," she said.
To round out the discussion on the influenza threat, the library will host presentations Wednesday and Sept. 28, both at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday’s presentation will be given by Laura H. Kahn, an associate research scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs’ Program in Science and Global Security. Dr. Kahn, who is also a member of the health commission, will discuss viruses, the origins of pandemics and how influenza spreads.
On Sept. 28, the library will hold a panel discussion on how the community could prepare for a possible pandemic.
Prospective panelists include Mr. Henry; Dr. Lisa Bonwell, head of infection control at University Medical Center at Princeton; Grayson Barber, a Princeton attorney; and Ted Cashel, emergency response specialist for the Homeland Security Branch of the New Jersey State Police.