# 3642
It is probably just an artifact of the British press carefully crafting stories that will sell papers, but based on the reportage, you’d think that the main focus of the UK’s pandemic plan is how to deal with the dead.
Stories about officials looking for morgue space, or considering `double decking’ existing cemetery plots, or even mass graves seem to cycle through the news wires with regularity.
Today, we get another spate of such reporting:
Graves plan for swine flu pandemic Doncaster Free Press - National News 12:47
Councils to dig graves ready for swine flu pandemic Yorkshire Post - News 12:45
Mass graves planned for swine flu outbreak Metro.co.uk 12:32
Mass graves could be dug to cope with autumn bout of swine flu The Daily Mail - News 11:49
It remains to be seen how much stress this pandemic will put on funeral and crematory services in the UK, or any place else in the world. It doesn’t appear to have been a problem in the southern hemisphere over the past few months, but as we’ve been warned, the virus could mutate.
For now, we appear to have a relatively low mortality pandemic. Most distressing, right now, is the age shift towards younger victims. Unlike seasonal flu, this virus his hitting hardest in those under the age of 65.
It is, of course, reasonable and prudent to plan for any reasonable eventuality. And an increase in this pandemic’s mortality rate is certainly possible, if not assured, and so provisions need to be made to deal with that.
Here is one of the less lurid articles regarding the planning in the UK for this possibility.
Mass graves planned for swine flu outbreak
By MARK BLUNDEN, LONDON LITE - Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Home Office has drawn up plans for mass graves in London to deal with a second wave of swine flu expected this autumn.
Crematoriums and cemeteries may have to work round the clock to deal with the number of bodies, says a 59-page document which has also been sent to hospitals.
The grim preparations, discussed at a meeting of Whitehall officials and council leaders last month, will affect areas where there may not be enough graves.
Within weeks of a full-blown pandemic, the number of burials could more than double and some cemeteries, particularly in inner-city areas, “may experience a shortage of grave space”, says the report — Framework For Planners Preparing To Manage Deaths.
Freight containers and “inflatable” storage units may provide extra mortuary space
It discusses using “a grave that is for a number of unrelated persons, excavated mechanically in advance and designed for efficient preparation and use”.
It says this approach would create a “site for multiple graves and consecutive burials” but added there must still be “marking of the position of individual burials”.
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