Scenario B

Influenza A in Baltyre

The Baltyre Pandemic Response committee has gathered the following information for the second meeting of your group.

You should evaluate the effect(s) of the actions that you took at your last meeting and evaluate the current state of affairs in Baltyre.

You should submit 3-5 specific actions for further actions to control the pandemic, using the workshop 4 pro forma (also available on MyPlace). You should consider whether you want to continue any of the public health measures you implemented at your previous meeting, or whether you want to stop them; and also whether there are any new, additional actions you would like to take. Submit the pro forma by noon on Friday March 15th, via the submission link on MyPlace.

Minutes from the last Pandemic Response Committee Meeting

Actions taken:

  1. Extend flu vaccine rollout to farmers (as most common flu strain is H3N2 we are hoping for some cross reactivity with subsequent antibodies to H3N2 because of the same N2) and investigate poultry farms to determine a possible source of the H9N2 strain (which appears to be predominant)

  2. Make pharmacists more aware of symptoms and reduce pressure on primary care services and hospitals by activating the national pandemic flu service. Let pharmacies prescribe oseltamivir (antiviral) for affect people in the age brackets of <5 >65, as these groups are most venerable.

  3. Leaflets sent to offices and posted in NHS buildings/pharmacies and TV/internet adverts. These will encourage mask wearing (N95), getting flu vaccine (if eligible) and to encourage additional flu prevention measures e.g. working from home, if possible, reduce unnecessary travel for people who feel unwell, handwashing and covering coughs and sneezes.

Pandemic Statistics

Table 1. Data from the Baltyre Influenza A outbreak.
23/02/2024 data 07/03/2024 data
Deaths caused by the Influenza A outbreak (total) 20 35
Verified Influenza A cases (total) 330 409
Influenza A hospitalisations (weekly) 170 103
Queen’s College ICU bed occupancy (current) 15 10
Number of Influenza A related GP visits (total) 311 15



Letters from the Public

From:
To:
Cc: Subject: This Bloody Pandemic

Dear Pandemic Response Committee

I am extremely vexed to hear about your actions tackling the pandemic in Baltyre. If it isn’t enough that the NHS is eroded by decades of underfunding and mismanagement, now you are having pharmacies prescribe medicine. Dire times call for dire measures I know, but surely it is more important that you do something to fix our poor NHS instead of splashing out all this money on useless statues and silly things.

I wish that your office is going to do something about this dreadful mess. Pharmacists don’t have the proper training to be prescribing drugs and it isn’t fair to make them do extra work, either. You’d never think that we live in the 21st century, the state our NHS is in - it’s a crying shame.

Yours sincerely,
Karen

From:
To:
Cc:
Subject: VACCINES ARE TOXIC

Dear Pandemic Response Committee,

I can already see that you and your office are going to use this new pandemic as yet another excuse for government overreach into citizens’ lives. Encouraging mask wearing and vaccination - your hands are already washed in blood. I hope you can sleep at night because I am sure I wouldn’t be able to if I were you. How many more innocents need to die before we just STOP it with these TOXIC vaccines?!?!

Yours truly,
Karen

Newspaper coverage

Baltyre Post
Baltyre says farewell to pandemic’s youngest victim
by J.M. Lane 08/03/2023

The influenza pandemic ravaging Baltyre has claimed yet another victim. There have been 35 deaths in the pandemic so far, but perhaps the most tragic loss is Luca Evans - at only 2, the youngest victim that the pandemic has claimed.

Luca Evans liked teddy bears and goldfish. Friends and family say that he was always a delight.

Luca is survived by his parents and grandparents, and by his siblings Caleb and Brody.

The funeral service will be held Saturday at St. Andrew’s.

Baltyre Times
Baltyre says farewell to local legend
by Kate Evans 10/03/2023

The influenza pandemic ravaging Baltyre has claimed yet another victim. Cypress Wood, local comedian and star, sadly passed away on Saturday.

Cypress was perhaps best known for their 2005 work Idle Thoughts , but fans say that the rest of their work was equally as genre-changing.

Cypress is survived by their wife, and by their siblings Gloria and Stephen.

The funeral service will be held Tuesday at St. Elfrida’s Catholic Church.

Baltyre Evening News
Baltyre pandemic council making great strides
by Harry Fox 14/03/2023

Citizens of Baltyre should be grateful that the city’s Pandemic Response Council, swiftly convened when a new pandemic began to hit Baltyre, has been so effective. While the initial death toll from the pandemic appeared to be quite alarming, the actions taken by the PRC seem to have been most effective.

Officials from the NHS have publicly praised the Baltyre PRC, saying that their actions have been extremely effective

There have been 5 deaths due to influenza in Baltyre this week. This is an enormous decrease, and hopefully Baltyre will see the death toll continue to decrease in the coming weeks.

Baltyre Sentinel
Yet more overreach in the name of “science”
by Byron Star 07/03/2023

Governments across the globe have seen how successful power-grabs in the name of public health can be, following on the wave of restrictions imposed because of so-called viral diseases like COVID-19 and “mpox”. So-called scientists are fearmongering - aerosols, monkeys, “bird” flu - now they think that they can fool us into thinking that the very air we breathe is unsafe. Citizens of Baltyre should stand strong against this terrible tyranny! No more mask mandates, no more senseless restrictions!

Our elders should not be left to die alone, left frightened and hopeless in a mandatory lockdown claimed to be “for their benefit.” Our children should not be left to struggle through “pandemic” after “pandemic” - their language and literacy skills have been left behind due to these lockdowns, and their mental health is suffering. It is time that we take back control of our lives and end this tyranny of fear-mongering and so-called science. Citizens of Baltyre, stand with me and resist this most recent attack on your freedoms and your lives.

The Independent
influenza pandemic in Baltyre
by Eric Shelley 11/03/2023

Hard on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and a number of other health scares (monkeypox, or “mpox”, Strep A, and worries about other infectious disease outbreaks), another pandemic has hit the Scottish town of Baltyre. This time, it’s influenza - the same virus that has caused global pandemics in the past.

There have been 35 deaths in the pandemic so far, but perhaps the most frightening aspect to this new pandemic is rumours that this variant of avian influenza has crossed the species barrier and can be transmitted from human to human.

Scientists have been talking about this possibility for years, warning of the potential for a massive pandemic similar to the 1918 “Spanish Flu”.

Is the virus circulating in Baltyre the one, or is the next influenza pandemic still around the corner?

Data gathered by the committee since the previous meeting

RT-PCR testing for influenza virus

Table 2. RT-PCR testing of poultry farms in the Baltyre influenza outbreak.
Location Number of animals tested Number of positive RT-PCR tests
Sue’s Duck Farm 100 4
Craig’s Chickens 83 4
Ellenmere Farm 47 8
Highgrove 69 7
Clucks-alot Farms 79 5
Lucky Clucky Farms 75 3
The Golden Goose 69 6
Hightree Nature Reserve 66 1
Lakesmere 95 5
Heather and Gorse Farms 47 10
Grace’s Ganders 86 0
Loosey Goosey Farms 77 10
The Chicken Run 68 7
Greenacres 76 10
Hill Farm 33 6
Loyola’s Turkey Farm 73 5
The Balltyre Quail Farm 35 5
Goosopolis Farms 41 9
Cordelia and Ken’s Chickens 79 0
Fair Hope Farm 36 7