Both private companies and non-profit enterprises are struggling to deal with the current recession, and many don’t have proper pandemic flu plans in place, warns Wellesley Instititute CEO Rick Blickstead in a front page article in today’s Toronto Star. “Many organizations have not done proper risk management to prepare for the inevitability of people being away from work,” said Blickstead. “There are some really large business and social issues that people have not put pen to paper in terms of developing plans.” The Wellesley Institute has been urging governments to ensure that their pandemic flu plans have an equity focus – and we have published a series of research and policy papers. Standard advice – such as ‘home quarantines’ and stockpiling of 72-hours of food – are simply not possible for significant parts of the population.