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Emergency planning scenarios for viral pandemics: new IRDR working paper published
7 May 2020
The UCL-IRDR Covid-19 Observatory has released a new working paper that examines how emergency planning scenarios can be used to prepare for viral pandemics.
Produced by Professor David Alexander, with help from IRDR staff and students, the report provides a systematic record of the issues connected with the Covid-19 pandemic in order to improve the basis for future emergency planning.
Beginning with emergency coordination and response, the paper examines aspects of the pandemic such as health and medical, economics, social and psychological, justice and crime, and education and culture. It explains how planning scenarios can help to formulate and adapt emergency plans for pandemics and encourage flexibility in response to the uncertainties of virus behaviour.
The report concludes that an emergency plan is only as good as its implementation and the need to evolve underlines the role of planning as a process rather than an end.
This is a working paper and will be updated in due course, with revisions published on this website. Comments about the paper are welcomed, please contact David Alexander.