What’s a suitable synonym for swine flu ‘emergency?’

Image by Jim Linwood via Flickr

The state of “public health emergency” declared by the federal government is so fresh and new that the New York Times didn’t even get a chance to copy edit their article on the subject before hitting publish:

American health officials on Sunday declared a publichealth emergency over increasing cases of swine flu, saying that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak.

via U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu – NYTimes.com.

Sure, I might be scared, too, when I hear “public health emergency” that, quaking fingers and all, I’d hit the save button and then spend so much time slathering my hands down in Purel or some other sufficient anti-bacterial liquid (editor’s note: flu is a virus, not a bacteria) that I’d fail to properly line edit an article in the world’s newspaper of record.

But, maybe I should chill out:

Although officials said most of the cases have been mild and urged Americans not to panic, the emergency declaration frees government resources to be used toward diagnosing or preventing additional cases, and releases money for more antiviral drugs.

“We are seeing more cases of swine flu,” said Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control, in a news conference in Washington. “We expect to see more cases of swine flu. As we continue to look for cases, I expect we’re going to find them.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking at the same news conference called the emergency declaration “standard operating procedure,” and said it should be considered a “declaration of emergency preparedness.”

“Really that’s what we’re doing right now,” she said. “We’re preparing in an environment where we really don’t know ultimately what the size of seriousness of this outbreak is going to be.”

So, if this is all really just a case of preparation behind the scenes, can we use a name other than “state of emergency?” You know, when I hear “state of emergency” I think some kindly black president named Morgan Freeman is going to come on TV and tell me the asteroids are going to hit the Earth and everyone on the east and west coasts should start driving, politely, to Nebraska because they’re going to be underwater in about 6 hours.

Or when you hear about a “state of emergency” you think “Maybe I shouldn’t go outdoors or send my kids to school and I should give leery glances to my Mexican neighbors because the sickness might be deep inside them ready to come out.”

If that’s not the case, then how about we say, “state of alertness” or “state of preparedness?” It seems much less panicky then “emergency.”