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Sickbert calls the Bird Flu a “different kind of emergency” than the committee has planned for before. In the past they have prepared for disasters such as a fire or natural occurrence. This type of emergency is a one time event, whereas the Bird Flu “will be a wave” that the committee will have to deal with. “If it were to happen it won’t be a matter of preventing it coming; it’s bigger than that,” Bester said.

In contrast with the preparations for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which dwindled once the university realized the pandemic would not hit the campus, Sickbert wants to continue planning, even if the threat of Bird Flu becomes obsolete. The committee has referred to the plans of the U of M and other smaller universities to help build one specific to Hamline. Bester adds that they have also looked to the public health administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for additional information.

Bester has, and will, attend conferences to help the university prepare for a possible pandemic. “It’s a big deal. We can only pray that it will be a lot of fuss about nothing,” Bester said. She warns students who may or are studying abroad in Asian nations, where the most occurrences of the Bird Flu have been reported. “When students travel they need to be aware of the travel concerns,” she said, “The best type of protection is washing your hands.”

Sickbert also expects Hamline to be involved with the state, city, and national response. “We think the residence halls and colleges will bring the interest of the state,” Sickbert said. Adds Bester, “We may have to play a part in the community.” He mentioned the dorms may be used for extra beds, should the hospitals need them for any reason. In this case, classes could be cancelled or postponed, but the details have yet to be worked out. Sickbert emphasizes that the committee needs to think about all scenarios possible.

“There are lots of things that I’m sure we haven’t thought about,” Sickbert said. However, they will be coming up with an extensive plan which will cover the administration of vaccine shots, based on a case-by-case basis, even though “a vaccine doesn’t really exist,” he said.

Currently, the Bird Flu is only passed from an infected bird to a human who handles the bird. There is not a strain that is passed from human to human, so the threat of a pandemic hitting the Hamline campus is rather rare. “We do have a sense of what it would do to people,” Bester said, but the list of symptoms is rather vague. Typical symptoms include a cough, fever and sore throat, but they could be as serious as an eye infection, pneumonia, or severe respiratory distress. Bester does mention that the Bird Flu would be hard to diagnose because of the wide range of symptoms.

“[The Bird Flu] has not come to the United States, so I’m not worried about it yet,” Bester said. But officials are “starting to see occurrences in wild birds that have migrated west, to Europe,” she said, but also emphasizes this doesn’t mean the flu is there. The university still needs to be prepared, Sickbert and Bester said. “It’s something that we’re planning for,” Sickbert said, “we’ll be ready, hopefully.”