College puts pandemic plan on hold

Author: Lea Calderon-Guthe

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5 - one step short of a global pandemic - the recent outbreak of swine flu (also called the Influenza A[H1N1] virus) across the globe will not prompt Middlebury College to execute its Phased Plan for Pandemic Flu just yet. Dean of the College Gus Jordan said that the College's current plan is to watch and wait.

"We are abiding by and watching what the policies are across the country and responding in appropriate ways," Jordan said. "We haven't made any changes to regular operating practices right now."

The current pandemic plan calls for event cancellations and for the campus to close in the event of one or more clusters of sustained human-to-human transmission in North America - which is the current scenario - but because symptoms of swine flu have been relatively mild, Jordan emphasized a need for flexibility in the pandemic plan.

"We're watching other colleges and universities who are now having students diagnosed with it, and they are managing okay," Jordan said. "What we're experiencing now is a need for our own response to be flexible. We're taking in current data that we're getting from across the country and across the world and evaluating, hour by hour, day by day, what it means for our campus."

The data collection goes on in a kind of emergency operations center in Meeker Conference Room, with a computer, several monitors and staff during normal working hours. It tracks the spread of the virus at other colleges and universities and the virus' proximity to Vermont. Dining Services and Facilities also were asked to evaluate the most effective places to increase cleaning and sterilzation, so cautionary signs have gone up in the dining halls urging students to use the proper utensils and wash their hands, and doorknobs and railings in most dorms have started to undergo daily sanitizing. Students reacted to the extra precautions as unnecessary.

"I think [sanitizing doorknobs] is excessive, and resistant bacteria can develop from disinfectants," Gemma Collins '12 said. "I think that unless we're in immediate danger ... we really don't need to be doing that."

Steven Tatum '12 agreed.

"It would obviously be bad if there was a case here because we could all get sick, but I've always been sort of a 'people get sick and that's life' kind of person," Tatum said. "The idea of going around disinfecting everything is really bizarre to me."

A potential case of swine flu in Coffrin Hall did come to the attention of the Health Center on May 1, but after temporarily closing a women's bathroom on the possibly infected hall and isolating the student, an official test for the Influenza A(H1N1) virus came back negative. Director of the Health Center Dr. Mark Peluso, MD called the precautionary measures necessary.

"From a scientific standpoint, this is a virus that is new to most people's immune systems," Peluso said. "In other words, we don't have a lot of immunologic experience with this, and if you study pandemics, that has the potential to become severe and cause a lot of illness."

Both Peluso and Jordan pointed to the possibility of a viral mutation as the main source of worry in the current swine flu epidemic. According to Peluso, pandemics usually occur in waves of people contracting the illness at once that get less severe as time goes on, but sometimes the waves can increase in severity, especially if a random gene mutation in the virus creates a much deadlier version that survives in its host and is transmitted. A mutation is only something to watch for right now, however, and Peluso advised against any drastic action on the College's part even if swine flu reaches the campus.

"Right now if you look at what other institutions are doing - Amherst College, for example, has two confirmed cases - they're not closing or suspending operations, and I don't think we would either," Peluso said. "I think that would be excessive at this point, but we would be very concerned about it."

The swine flu pandemic has garnered much media attention and even College resources as the administration strives to be prepared, but the disease itself boils down to a basic fever and cough. Still, Peluso saw some benefit to the near-frenzy surrounding the issue.

"This is a good opportunity for us to examine our preparedness and our plan," Peluso said. It feels really good to be able to e-mail students and say, 'Get your evacuation plan up to speed, you should have thought of this already, get ready to go.' If it was severe and we had to close the campus, we know we could do it."

Peluso also looked at the swine flu epidemic as a way to remind students to practice good hygiene and take care of themselves. The Center for Disease Control Web site suggests basic health precautions like frequent hand-washing and using disposable tissues when coughing or sneezing to prevent infection, but Peluso put forth advice for Middlebury especially.

"This is something I think is particularly important for college students - do stuff to maintain your health," Peluso said. "Do not overextend yourself socially, athletically or academically. Make sure you're eating right and getting plenty of rest - college students tend not to do those things."

Nate Woods '11 saw little to be gained from acknowledging the swine flu as anything other than a media creation.

"I think that every couple of years somebody decides on some new disease to have a panic about," Woods said. "It's okay to have a big media frenzy - it's fun, I guess - but I think it's just this media fear culture. We have to have something to be afraid of. It's never anything actually that bad here. Remember SARS? Remember West Nile Virus? Remember avian flu? Anthrax? Killer bees? I'm much more worried about MRSA, really."