# 3012
Tonight, and on the following two Wednesday nights, NBC affiliate KHNL-8 TV will bring a one-hour panel discussion to the residents of Hawaii on the dangers of a pandemic and the need to prioritize any vaccine that might be available.
These show will air between 8pm-9pm. That’s right. Prime Time.
And for those not in Hawaii – the show will be streamed live online at WWW.KHNL.COM. Of course, the airtime will be in the middle of the night for those of us on the mainland.
Here is the schedule of airdates:
Vaccine: Surviving Hawaii's Next Pandemic
News Links
Preparing Hawaii for the next pandemic
Three one-hour panel discussions airing live on KHNL NBC 8 and live streaming on KHNL.com.
First program: Wednesday, April 15 8:00 PM HST on KHNL NBC 8 rebroadcast on Sunday on K5 The Home Team on Sunday, April 19 at 6:00 PM HST.
Second program: Wednesday, April 22 8:00 PM HST on KHNL NBC 8 rebroadcast on Sunday on K5 The Home Team on Sunday, April 26 at 6:00 PM HST.
Third program: Wednesday, April 29 8:00 PM HST on KHNL NBC 8 rebroadcast on Sunday on K5 The Home Team on Sunday, May 3 at 6:00 PM HST.Viewers will be able to call in or email questions or comments.
This is just the start of a public awareness campaign kicking off in the island state of Hawaii where emergency officials are keenly aware of just how vulnerable their population could be in a pandemic.
The 1.2 million residents of Hawaii lie at the crossroads of the Pacific. Honolulu International Airport handles in excess of 21 million air travelers a year, with many travelers arriving each day from countries currently dealing with the H5N1 virus.
During a prolonged pandemic, Hawaii could also find itself at the end of a very long, and potentially broken, supply chain.
KHNL reports on the upcoming broadcasts with this article. If you travel to their webpage, you’ll find a video report as well.
Preparing Hawaii for the next pandemic
Posted: April 15, 2009 01:02 AM
By Mari-Ela David
HONOLULU (KHNL) - Several thousand people in Hawaii died from the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918, and the islands saw even more deaths in the 1957 and 1968 pandemics.
When the next one hits, who should be the first to get a vaccine? Children? Mothers? The elderly?
The Department of Health wants the public's opinion.
<SNIP>
"Hawaii is in the crossroads. We are the gateway to the Asian countries," said Nerurkar.
Right now, the virus hasn't transformed where it can be passed from human to human, but when it does, and spreads worldwide you have a pandemic.
In Honolulu?
"We'll have a pandemic situation arising in a matter of days. That fast because once the virus comes in here by the time you know the virus is here, it's already infecting people," said Nerurkar.
And coming in Mid-May, something completely different.
An online pandemic simulation-role playing game called Coral Cross.
The website isn’t `live’ yet, but a few details are emerging on this `playable scenario’ that has been developed by the Hawaii State Department of Health and the Hawaii Research Center For Future Studies.
Here is a screen-shot of the Coral Cross website.
ARGNET, the Alternate Reality Gaming Network, has a preview of this `game’ on their website.
Coral Cross: Pandemic Preparedness from the Hawaii Department of Health
April 12, 2009 · By Michael Andersen
(excerpt)
The game is scheduled to launch during the second half of May, with each day representing one month of game time. While anyone can play, the game’s core audience will be located in Hawaii, particularly the island of Oahu. As Stuart Candy, researcher at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, explains,
First, we can make use of the limited geography — a captive audience, if you like — by using more real-life elements to augment the storytelling. Second, as a member of our design team observed, the fact that we’re tackling a global topic, pandemic flu, with a local tilt, not only gives it an interesting flavour, but it also helps the scenario. Instead of trying to evoke every last thing about how the world could transform as a result of a deadly disease sweeping across it, the island acts as a sort of microcosm in which, no matter where they’re from, people will be able to see what’s at stake more clearly and concretely, in particular how lives and communities are affected.
By restricting the geographic field of gameplay to a limited area, Coral Cross will hopefully be able to address the impact pandemics will have on local communities and social structures while providing a truly immersive experience for the participants.
For more on the how the Coral Cross scenario was developed, you can go to the Hawaii Research Center For Future Studies and read about the project.
As the website informs us:
Coral Cross is free and will run in the second half of May. Anyone interested can now visit coralcross.org to sign up.
I’m guessing a lot of my readers will.
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