SaferMe believes companies need an integrated, rapid-response program, even as the federal government readies its national biodefense strategy.
 
Austin, Texas, July 13, 2022—SaferMe, a global leader in contact tracing and pandemic readiness, urges businesses, particularly those with critical supply chains, to speed up the development and implementation of their pandemic management plans as monkeypox and COVID subvariant BA.5 continue to spread in the U.S. SaferMe also advises companies not to be complacent and depend on the U.S. Government’s soon-to-be released National Biodefense Strategy to help them become pandemic-ready. The federal plan ends at the doorstep of businesses and only focuses on the government’s response to viruses.
 
Research shows that in the next 25 years, there is a 50% chance that a global pandemic with the severity of COVID-19 will rear its ugly head.
 
SaferMe, which counts Fortune 500 businesses and governments in 30 countries around the world as its clients, reports that at least 40% of organizations it engages with have ineffective pandemic planning. Out of the companies that have pandemic plans, almost 60% still have an old-fashioned phone tree as a core component of their contact tracing processes -- despite what they have been through in the last two years and new technology available.
 
“While the American government is being responsible and formalizing its strategies and plans to improve the country’s pandemic preparedness, their plans operate at the macro level,” says Clint Van Marrewijk, founder and CEO of SaferMe. “Businesses are responsible for their own resiliency, continuity, and managing the risks of their employees. They must become self-sufficient and develop their own comprehensive policies and plans to become pandemic-ready. Ultimately, they have a duty of care towards employees and their customers.”
 
Van Marrewijk advises businesses to develop an integrated response, which can be activated within 24 hours of virus risk surpassing the company’s risk tolerance. “This can only be achieved if the company has the necessary strategies and virus response assets in place. Success depends on pre-approval by human resource teams, business continuity, risk management, IT, production, and corporate communication departments. They all need to be actively involved and working in concert to get their company pandemic-ready.”
 
In addition, Van Marrewijk also recommends that businesses create their own virus toolkits that are held in a state of readiness and can be activated in times of need. These toolkits should include personal protective equipment, a supply of hygiene supplies such as hand sanitizers, an automated contact tracing system, company-wide health checks, and business continuity planning to ensure workers that need to be on site and those that can work remotely can do so without issue.