Prepare for the Unexpected: New Guidelines for Pandemic Preparedness

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) is urging Canadian businesses to bolster their pandemic preparedness with the release of an updated Flu and Infectious Disease Outbreaks Business Continuity Plan Handbook.

Released in June, the second edition of the handbook emphasizes the need for companies to be ready for severe disruptions caused by a hypothetical “new virus.”

The updated handbook builds on lessons from the COVID-19 “pandemic” and the 1918 influenza outbreak, advising businesses to plan for more than just temporary closures or drops in customer demand.

The CCOHS states that “based on trends from past pandemic flus, there may be a higher average number of illness and deaths in age groups different than what we typically see during annual flu seasons.”

Key points from the guide include:

• Potential Workforce Impact: Businesses should anticipate potential large-scale absences due to illness and the uncertainty of how severe the new virus might be.
• Pandemic Waves: Expect future pandemics to unfold in 2 or 3 waves, with each wave lasting 6 to 8 weeks and the entire pandemic potentially stretching over two years.
• Wide-Ranging Disruptions: Prepare for impacts on labor supply, supply chains, consumer demand, and even essential services like telecommunications, banking, water, power, fuel, medicine, and food.

One of the specifics mentioned in the handbook states that a future pandemic “will come in 2 or 3 waves about 3 to 9 months separating each outbreak. Each wave is expected to last approximately 6 to 8 weeks. A pandemic may last in these cycles for up to two years or more.”

Question is – how do those writing this handbook know the duration of a pandemic yet to exist on top of them not knowing the severity of the potential illness?

Businesses are advised to develop robust contingency plans to navigate these challenges and maintain operations during severe disruptions.

A warning about possible disruptions in services such as banking, water, power, telecommunications, gasoline, medicine, and even the food supply were also mentioned.

“In more extreme situations, (expect) possible disruptions in other services such as telecommunications, financial/banking, water, power (hydro), gasoline/fuels, medicine or the food supply.”

Again, how is it that this extreme “new virus” would have the ability to affect all of the industries and sectors if the government of Canada wasn’t already privy to information about such a virus, how it might act and how it may affect vast swaths of the population?

In addition to this news, Canada, the U.S., and Mexico have also updated their pandemic agreement which now includes provisions for vaccine mandates, border measures, and travel restrictions.

Conclusion

The future is not a source of fear but an opportunity to stand firm in faith.

As believers, we are to walk by faith and not by what our naked eye sees – knowing and trusting in God’s promises is a great place to begin!

Whilst there are those within the church who are taking their orders from the likes of the World Economic Forum who told ministers not to preach on healing, prosperity and speaking in tongues, we choose to believe in the entirety of God’s Word which includes or right to healing, our right to prosperity and the ability for any believer to speak in tongues!

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to face any uncertainty with courage and hope. God’s plans for us are only good and we know that He will guide and protect us through every challenge.

We can confront the unknown head on because we have the assurance that God’s strength and provision will see us through, and that His divine purpose will prevail in our lives.

So look at the future with excitement! For these are the days where the world isn’t falling apart but it is falling into place.

Thank you for your support.

If you appreciate the work we do to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, please consider giving a gift to help us continue this work. Maranatha!