The Pandemic Plan Needs a Full Rewrite

A reporter holds the U.S. government's report on the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza during a briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 3, 2006. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

The closest thing we have in this country to a pandemic plan is called the Pandemic Action Crisis Plan or PanCap. It remains the prevailing unclassified document. It posits stay-at-home orders, school closures, business shutdowns, office closures, travel restrictions, testing, track-and-trace, and the creation and distribution of countermeasures called vaccines.