Governments don't do innovation, a friend of mine in government told me, but some tolerate innovation more than others. One innovative experiment opens today on line.
Recognizing the need for people to take pandemic flu preparations more seriously, and recognizing that blogging is a powerful and effective two-way communications tool, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is hosting a Pandemic Flu Leadership Conference in Washington DC on June 13, to which I've been invited (based on work done at Flu Wiki and here). And as part of the effort to reach as many people as possible, a blog has been set up to discuss the conference's theme pre-and post-gathering.
The HHS Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog opens today for a five week run. You can access it at http://blog.pandemicflu.gov/ and read my first post today (other posters will contribute over the course of the five weeks). This week's theme is 'why we need to prep'. The five week theme is laid out at the web site.
While it won't get the traffic that this place does, think about what it represents... a government department is asking for feedback from the public on an issue that the public may have as much expertise on as the Feds, at least in some aspects of preparation. We can't keep the grid up in a natural disaster (something near and dear to bloggers everywhere), and can't coordinate responses between education departments and public health in the event of a flu pandemic (schools will need to close). That's the job of the federal government, and they need to supply the leadership to make this issue a priority at the state and local level. But we do know something about personal preparedness. So, if you have comments or questions about the blog summit, please stop by. Public health authorities are trying to reach as many segments of the population as they possibly can.
And while we're at it, you need to appreciate the irony of a Daily Kos front pager being introduced by an administration cabinet appointee, and being supplied an uncensored platform to speak my mind on the issue of pandemic preparedness. Let's just say that won't happen very often, and probably not in any other field than public health... but the issue is that real, of that importance, and warrants their taking the risk.