Why this matters
The next pandemic may not resemble COVID-19. It may spread through respiratory particles, contact, food, water, animals or vectors, and its severity may differ by age, health, place and time. Build the continuity capabilities first, then use current disease-specific instructions for the actual route of transmission.
Official systems are indispensable, but they are not infallible. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry documented serious flaws in preparedness, early decision-making, communication and healthcare resilience, alongside important achievements in vaccines, research and treatment. A household plan should assume that institutional performance will be uneven and that guidance may change as evidence develops.
Public behaviour also varies. Some people act too late, some act rapidly, many cooperate and a minority already have a plan. Others cannot follow advice because of money, work, housing, disability or care responsibilities. Preparedness should reduce forced choices, support practical compliance and avoid the myth that everyone will panic or become hostile.
Before disruption
Prepare now
- Save the current public-health, healthcare, local-government, school, workplace and travel sources responsible for your location.
- Record who may be at greater risk of severe illness and ask their clinical team about vaccination, treatment, prescriptions and interrupted-care planning.
- Learn how the home is ventilated, test safe window and extractor-fan use, and understand any existing mechanical ventilation or air cleaner.
- Obtain authentic masks or respirators in suitable sizes where they are appropriate, then learn their fit, limits, storage and replacement needs.
- Build a modest rotating buffer of normal food, hygiene, care and household supplies without clearing shelves or buying items the household will not use.
- Arrange prescription continuity through usual clinicians and pharmacists. Do not hoard medicine, oxygen, tests or specialist protective equipment.
- Write a home illness plan covering sleeping, shared rooms, bathrooms, ventilation, masks, meals, laundry, waste, testing, treatment and emergency help.
- Agree who can deliver food or medicine, care for animals, support a child or vulnerable adult, and communicate without entering the home.
- Plan for income loss, remote work, school closure, childcare, care-worker absence and reduced public transport.
- Keep paper and offline copies of contacts, medicine lists, accessibility needs and the most important current instructions.
- Choose household triggers for checking supplies, reducing optional exposure, changing travel and activating the illness plan.
- Prepare a daily routine for sleep, daylight, movement, work, learning, news, private time and a familiar morale ritual.
- Discuss safeguarding, domestic safety, grief, mental-health support and how someone can ask for help privately.
- Practise a short scenario in which two adults are ill, deliveries are delayed and official guidance changes during the week.
When it is happening
Protect the next decision
- Confirm what is known about the pathogen, how it spreads, who is at higher risk and which instructions apply in your location.
- Separate current legal requirements from recommendations, workplace rules and personal risk choices, and record the date of each update.
- Use several protective layers matched to the actual transmission route rather than relying on one product or past COVID-19 advice.
- If the disease is respiratory, improve shared air, reduce crowded indoor time and use suitable masks or respirators where current guidance supports them.
- Stay away from others when infectious as current guidance requires, and activate food, income, care and delivery support that makes staying home possible.
- Use testing when the result will change treatment, contact, work, school or protection decisions.
- Contact healthcare promptly when a higher-risk person may qualify for time-sensitive treatment.
- Keep a simple illness log and seek urgent help for severe symptoms or other emergencies. Do not let a stay-home message delay emergency care.
- Buy at normal rates wherever possible, rotate supplies and share verified availability information without broadcasting private household stock.
- Use scheduled information checks, verify claims against original primary sources and avoid forwarding screenshots, cures or predictions without evidence.
- Protect people who cannot isolate easily through practical help rather than blame, stigma or public exposure.
- Review the plan when evidence, local spread, public instructions, household health or service availability changes.
The COVID-19 record
What COVID-19 taught us about authority, uncertainty and readiness
COVID-19 was a disease emergency, a government stress test, a supply-chain shock and a mass behaviour event at the same time. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has documented serious failures in preparedness, early decision-making, communication and healthcare resilience. It has also documented successful research, vaccination and treatment work. The practical lesson is not that every authority always fails. It is that institutional performance will be uneven, advice may change, and households need enough independent capacity to act before every uncertainty has been resolved.
Plans can prepare for the wrong event
The UK had treated pandemic influenza as its leading civil emergency risk, yet the Covid Inquiry found that the system was not ready for the coronavirus pandemic that arrived. Household plans should be capability-based: cleaner air, care continuity, information, income, supplies and support that can adapt to different pathogens.
Delay reduces every later option
The Inquiry described the early government response as repeated cases of too little, too late. With fast growth, a delay that looks small on a calendar can create a much larger problem. Prepare ordinary supplies and decision rules before demand, illness and restrictions rise together.
Uncertainty must be stated, not hidden
Early evidence will be incomplete. COVID-19 guidance remained too committed to droplet and contact transmission and gave ventilation too little prominence. Good decisions identify what is known, what is uncertain, what precaution is proportionate now and what evidence would change the action.
Complex authority can mean unclear responsibility
The Inquiry found complicated structures, fragmented planning and weaknesses in data and coordination. A household cannot repair national governance, but it can record which organisation is responsible for health, schools, work, travel, utilities and local restrictions before messages conflict.
Trust is an operational resource
Confusion between advice and law, inconsistent conduct and unclear explanations damaged trust. Trust affects whether people share symptoms, isolate, accept protective measures and help others. Keep a factual record of current rules and reasons, and do not make every changing recommendation evidence of deception.
Healthcare is a finite system
COVID-19 pressure affected staff, beds, oxygen, protective equipment, appointments and ordinary emergency care. The slogan to stay home may also have discouraged some people from seeking urgent help. A pandemic plan must preserve routine medicines and appointments while making clear that emergencies still require emergency care.
Protection is unequal unless support is practical
People cannot all work from home, isolate in a spare room, buy in bulk or stop caring for someone. Overcrowding, insecure work, disability, language, digital exclusion and poverty change what is possible. Treat support, paid absence, food delivery, accessible information and safe housing as infection-control measures.
Institutions can fail and still deliver successes
COVID-19 documented serious state failures, but the vaccine programme, therapeutic research and many local services also achieved important results. Prepare for uneven institutional performance, not a fantasy that every system will work perfectly or that every system will collapse.
People do not react as one crowd
Panic, indifference, cooperation and plan-led behaviour
Some people buy rapidly or avoid all contact. Some carry on as if nothing has changed. Many cooperate, improvise and help neighbours. Others appear indifferent because the protective action is financially, physically or socially impossible. A useful plan anticipates this range without treating the public as irrational or hostile.
Research into early COVID-19 shopping found that the phrase panic buying often described empty shelves rather than irrational conduct. Many households bought a little more to reduce shopping trips. Small changes across millions of people were enough to overwhelm tightly tuned supply chains. Scarcity signals and media repetition then encouraged more buying.
Early cautious action
What it can look like: People reduce contacts, replace supplies and change travel before formal restrictions.
Prepare for it: Make early actions modest, reversible and evidence-linked so caution does not become isolation or uncontrolled spending.
Scarcity-driven buying
What it can look like: Visible empty shelves, rumours and other shoppers' behaviour amplify demand.
Prepare for it: Rotate a normal household buffer before a crisis, set a written purchase limit and never compete for more than the household can use.
Cooperation and mutual aid
What it can look like: Neighbours collect prescriptions, deliver food, share information and check isolated people.
Prepare for it: Build trusted local contacts early, protect privacy, agree safe handovers and avoid making one volunteer indispensable.
Apparent indifference
What it can look like: A person continues ordinary behaviour despite warnings or rising cases.
Prepare for it: Check whether the cause is disbelief, risk fatigue, inaccessible information, work pressure or inability to comply before assuming carelessness.
Denial or active resistance
What it can look like: The threat is minimised, rules are treated as identity tests, or protective action is rejected.
Prepare for it: Do not escalate every disagreement. Set household boundaries around shared air, illness and vulnerable people, use credible messengers and keep the explanation short.
Plan-led steadiness
What it can look like: A small number of people have supplies, roles, thresholds and routines already agreed.
Prepare for it: Practise this response. Review the plan as evidence changes and help others without advertising stock or taking unsafe responsibility.
The indirect crisis can become the main crisis
Prepare for what happens around the disease
The infection is only the initiating hazard. The impacts that dominate a household may be lost income, an unavailable medicine, a closed school, care failure, misinformation, bereavement or long-term disability. These second-order effects often arrive in combinations that no single pandemic checklist predicted.
Healthcare beyond the infection
- Delayed diagnosis, surgery, dental care and routine monitoring
- Medicine, oxygen, blood-product or equipment shortages
- Staff absence and reduced ambulance, pharmacy or community care capacity
Work, money and housing
- Sudden loss of hours, contracts, customers or informal income
- Inability to isolate without paid leave or savings
- Rent, debt, fraud and benefit-access pressure
Children, education and care
- School, nursery and respite-care interruption
- Unsafe gaps in supervision or special educational support
- Learning, development, safeguarding and family conflict pressures
Food and essential supplies
- Demand spikes even when total supply remains adequate
- Factory, warehouse, transport and retail staff absence
- Shortages of specific packaging, ingredients or imported products
Information and trust
- Rapidly changing advice and gaps between announcement and detail
- Fabricated cures, manipulated statistics and impersonation scams
- Social conflict when health measures become political identities
Isolation, abuse and mental health
- Loneliness, grief, anxiety, disrupted treatment and loss of routine
- Greater exposure to domestic abuse or unsafe care
- Burnout among carers, key workers and volunteers
Travel and border disruption
- Cancellation, quarantine, documentation and insurance changes
- Families separated across regions or countries
- Freight delay and pressure on ports, airports and public transport
Long recovery
- Post-infectious illness, disability and reduced ability to work
- Bereavement without normal rituals or family contact
- Backlogs, debt, lost education and damaged trust lasting years
Act by stage, not by headline
Household triggers for an uncertain pandemic
A trigger is a prompt to review or act, not a prediction. Choose actions that are proportionate and reversible early, then strengthen them as the evidence and local risk become clearer.
Credible signal
Unusual outbreak elsewhere
- Check the original public-health reports and the suspected route of transmission.
- Review prescriptions, masks, ventilation, care contacts and household records without panic buying.
- Agree a date for the next review rather than checking news continuously.
Escalation
Sustained human transmission
- Confirm current vaccination, treatment and travel advice for the actual pathogen.
- Replace used supplies and test remote work, school, care and delivery arrangements.
- Reduce optional high-exposure activity for clinically vulnerable people when current advice supports it.
Local spread
Community transmission
- Use layered protection matched to the setting, person and current local risk.
- Move meetings outdoors or improve shared air where the disease is respiratory.
- Activate check-ins for people who may be isolated, unable to shop or unable to access digital guidance.
Household exposure
Someone may be infected
- Follow current testing, work, school and contact instructions.
- Activate the home illness plan, improve ventilation and reduce shared time where appropriate.
- Contact healthcare promptly when an at-risk person may need time-sensitive treatment.
Sustained pressure
Services and routines disrupted
- Protect medicine, income, sleep, childcare and urgent non-pandemic healthcare.
- Rotate information, care and practical tasks so one person is not permanently on alert.
- Review supplies weekly and buy at ordinary rates wherever possible.
Recovery and rebound
The wave appears to ease
- Do not treat a policy change as proof that all individual risk has disappeared.
- Restore routine care, education, movement and social contact in manageable stages.
- Record long-lasting symptoms, financial losses and plan failures, then prepare for another wave or a different emergency.
Use layers that match the pathogen
Reduce infection risk without relying on one perfect measure
The next pandemic may be respiratory, vector-borne, foodborne or spread another way. First identify the current understanding of transmission. Keep the continuity plan, then apply the disease-control layers that fit the actual hazard.
Current vaccination and clinical prevention
Use the vaccination and preventive treatment recommended for the person, pathogen and location. Review eligibility before a wave because protection can take time and programmes may prioritise higher-risk groups.
Stay away when infectious
Follow current instructions about symptoms, testing, staying home, work, school and contact with vulnerable people. A plan for food, income and care makes this action possible.
Cleaner shared air
For respiratory pathogens, bring in outdoor air safely, use mechanical ventilation correctly and consider a genuine, correctly sized air cleaner. Air movement from fans should not simply push contaminated air toward another person.
Suitable masks and respirators
When current guidance supports their use, choose the most protective product the person can wear consistently and that fits well. Keep instructions and check children, facial hair, disability and medical needs.
Time, distance and crowding
Shorter contact, fewer people, outdoor activity and avoiding the busiest time can lower exposure. Use these controls most strongly when local illness is rising or a vulnerable person is present.
Testing, treatment and hygiene
Use tests when the result will change treatment, contact or protective decisions. Seek time-sensitive treatment promptly if eligible. Hand, surface, food, water or vector controls matter differently depending on how the pathogen spreads.
When someone becomes unwell
A practical household illness protocol
Write this plan while everyone is well. Current clinical and public-health advice takes priority because treatment, testing and isolation rules change with the pathogen and over time.
Confirm the current instruction
Check what symptoms, tests, reporting, work or school exclusion and treatment routes apply now. Advice used during an earlier wave or in another country may be wrong for the present pathogen.
Protect higher-risk people first
Reduce shared air and close contact using the home layout available. If separation is not practical, use the strongest workable combination of ventilation, masks, shorter shared time and outside support.
Keep care humane
Agree how the unwell person will receive drinks, food, medicine, clean laundry, communication and reassurance. Isolation without practical care can worsen illness and distress.
Record changes
Keep a simple log of symptoms, temperature if useful, medicine, fluid intake, clinical calls and advice. Use devices only as trained and never let one reassuring number overrule serious symptoms.
Get treatment in time
Some antiviral or other treatments work best when started early. People at higher risk should know whom to contact as soon as symptoms or a positive test appear.
Escalate emergencies
Use local emergency services for severe breathing difficulty, collapse, new confusion, blue or grey colour, signs of stroke or heart attack, or any other locally defined emergency sign. Do not avoid urgent care because a stay-home message exists.
Buy gradually, use normally, replace quietly
Pandemic supplies that support a real household plan
Supplies buy time and reduce forced contact. They do not replace clinical care or community support. Build a modest buffer from normal shopping, rotate it and adapt it to health, access, culture, climate and household size.
Food and household basics
- Familiar shelf-stable meals that meet dietary, allergy and cultural needs
- Food that can be prepared when carers are ill or energy is low
- Baby, older-person, disability and animal supplies
- A written rotation list with use-by dates and normal replacement quantities
Health continuity
- Current medicine and allergy list, prescription details and pharmacy contacts
- First-aid, thermometer and condition-specific items recommended by a clinician
- Plans for refrigerated medicine and powered medical equipment
- Instructions for urgent symptoms and time-sensitive treatment access
Cleaner air and protection
- Authentic well-fitting masks or respirators appropriate to likely respiratory risks
- Replacement filters and instructions for existing ventilation or air-cleaning equipment
- A plan for a lower-risk room and safer shared-space use
- Eye or other protection only where responsible guidance recommends it
Hygiene and care
- Soap, tissues, laundry, menstrual and continence supplies
- Cleaning products used at their labelled dilution, with safe storage
- Waste bags and a method for no-contact delivery or collection
- Gloves only for tasks where they are useful, followed by correct removal and hand hygiene
Communication, work and power
- Charged power banks, cables, radio and paper contact details
- Working access to employer, school, care and health-service systems
- Offline copies of essential guidance and accessible communication tools
- More than one trusted person who can collect or deliver essentials
Morale and daily life
- Tea, coffee, boiled sweets, familiar snacks or another small comfort ritual
- Books, games, music, prayer materials, crafts and age-suitable activities
- A daylight, movement and sleep routine that works inside the home
- Private ways to contact friends, support services and people outside the household
Information is a household utility
Build an information protocol before the infodemic
Separate five different questions
- What is the pathogen and how might it spread?
- What is the risk of infection in this setting?
- What is the risk of severe illness for this person?
- What advice is recommended and what rule is legally required?
- What practical support makes the action possible?
Use a verification sequence
- Find the original publication, not a screenshot.
- Check date, country, population and whether it is current.
- Distinguish early evidence, expert judgement and confirmed finding.
- Ask whether the claim changes a decision today.
- Record the decision and the next review time.
Protect attention and trust
- Choose one or two scheduled update times rather than continuous alerts.
- Use a second household member to check important claims.
- Say what is unknown instead of filling the gap with certainty.
- Correct errors without humiliation and never forward fear for entertainment.
- Keep official phone numbers and essential guidance offline.
Recovery can last much longer than the wave
Long COVID, post-infectious illness, bereavement and delayed recovery
The public record from COVID-19 includes people who remained severely affected after the acute infection, bereaved families who could not say goodbye, patients whose ordinary care was delayed and workers who carried trauma or exhaustion for years. Ending restrictions did not end those consequences.
- Take persistent symptoms seriously. Record their pattern and effect, and seek qualified healthcare rather than forcing a return to normal activity.
- Keep the paperwork. Save test results, clinical contacts, medicine changes, absence records, expenses and workplace or school correspondence.
- Plan for fluctuating capacity. A person may need adjustments to work, care, education, travel, household tasks or communication.
- Protect rehabilitation from guesswork. Use appropriate clinical advice, especially when exertion worsens symptoms or several body systems are affected.
- Recognise traumatic bereavement. Restricted contact, uncertain decisions and disrupted cultural or religious rituals can complicate grief.
- Keep support after public attention moves on. Community check-ins, financial advice, advocacy and mental-health care may be needed long after the emergency phase.
Print, discuss and review
Pandemic preparedness checklist
Review this checklist when health needs change, when a credible outbreak emerges and after each household illness or major public-health wave.
People and clinical risk
- Higher-risk household members and current conditions recorded
- Vaccination and preventive-care questions discussed with a clinician
- Time-sensitive treatment eligibility and contact route recorded
- Medicine, pharmacy, equipment and refrigeration plans reviewed
- Accessible instructions shared with carers and advocates
Home infection plan
- Current responsible public-health sources bookmarked
- Ventilation and cleaner-air options tested
- Suitable masks or respirators available in required sizes
- Sleeping, bathroom and shared-space arrangements agreed
- Testing, waste, laundry and delivery methods understood
Continuity and supplies
- Familiar food and household basics rotated gradually
- Work, income, school and childcare backups discussed
- Animals, personal assistance and safeguarding covered
- Power, internet and paper-contact alternatives ready
- Two trusted people can help without entering the home
Information and decisions
- Household review triggers written down
- Advice and legal requirements kept separate and dated
- One person monitors updates and another can take over
- Claims are checked against original primary sources
- News times and mental-health boundaries agreed
Recovery
- Urgent non-pandemic healthcare will still be sought
- Symptoms and clinical contacts can be documented
- Bereavement, mental-health and domestic-safety contacts known
- Return to work or education can be adjusted if recovery is slow
- The plan will be reviewed after each wave or household illness
PrepareNow.org pandemic preparedness checklist. Follow current local public-health and clinical guidance before relying on this printed copy.
Clear answers for uncertain events
Pandemic preparedness questions
Should I wait for the government to declare an emergency before preparing?
No. Routine preparedness should already be in place. When a credible outbreak appears, check current official information and make low-cost, reversible improvements early. Do not wait for a dramatic announcement to find medicine lists, replace expired masks or agree how a vulnerable person will receive help.
Does pandemic preparation mean distrusting public-health advice?
No. Public-health authorities remain essential for surveillance, legal instructions, vaccination, testing, treatment and local risk information. COVID-19 showed that advice can be delayed, incomplete or revised. Use written primary sources, compare responsible authorities when advice appears inconsistent, and expect explanations to change as evidence improves.
Will the public panic?
Some people react quickly to fear or scarcity, some dismiss the threat, many cooperate, and others cannot comply because of work, money, housing, disability or care responsibilities. Research on early COVID-19 shopping found that the label panic buying often hid ordinary attempts to prepare or reduce shopping trips. Plan for varied behaviour and temporary demand spikes, not a universal breakdown of social order.
How much should I stockpile for a pandemic?
Build a modest rotating buffer that fits your budget, storage and current local guidance. Focus on items you already use. A household that buys gradually and replaces what it consumes is more resilient than one that clears shelves after an announcement. Never hoard prescription medicines or equipment needed by others.
Which masks should I keep?
The right product depends on the pathogen, setting, person and current guidance. For respiratory threats, well-fitting respirators can offer more protection than loose face coverings. Fit, comfort, authenticity and the ability to wear the product correctly matter. Some children and adults need specialist advice or an alternative protection plan.
Is ventilation enough to prevent infection?
No single layer is enough. Cleaner air can reduce exposure to respiratory particles, but it does not remove every risk. Combine current vaccination and treatment advice, staying away from others when ill, testing when useful, suitable masks, cleaner air, hygiene and changes to time or crowding as the situation requires.
Should I buy a pulse oximeter?
A pulse oximeter may be recommended for some people, but readings can be inaccurate and should not replace symptoms, clinical advice or emergency help. Ask a qualified healthcare professional whether one is useful for your household, how to use it and what action thresholds apply locally.
What if the next pandemic is not respiratory?
Do not copy COVID-19 controls automatically. A pathogen may spread through respiratory particles, direct contact, food, water, blood, animals or vectors such as mosquitoes. Keep the household continuity plan, then replace the disease-control layer with current advice for the actual route of transmission.
What should a clinically vulnerable person do before an outbreak?
Ask their usual clinical team how infection could affect the condition, how quickly treatment must start, which vaccinations are recommended, how prescriptions will continue and what to do if routine services are disrupted. Record the plan in accessible language and give it to the right carers or advocates.
How do I manage conflicting claims online?
Pause before sharing. Find the original source, check its date, location and evidence, and ask whether the claim is about infection, severe illness, individual treatment or population policy. A confident video or screenshot is not a substitute for current public-health or clinical guidance.
What did COVID-19 teach us about recovery?
Recovery is not simply reopening shops or ending restrictions. Some people face bereavement, delayed healthcare, lost income, disrupted education, trauma or long-term illness such as Long COVID. A pandemic plan needs a recovery stage with clinical follow-up, financial records, rehabilitation, rest, workplace adjustments and community support.
Can a household plan guarantee safety?
No. Preparedness reduces avoidable exposure and prevents practical problems from becoming urgent, but it cannot remove uncertainty or replace functioning public systems. The aim is to preserve choices, act earlier and support people who would otherwise be forced into unsafe situations.
Plan for real people
Access, care and inclusion
- Provide information in required languages, Easy Read, large print, audio, captions, sign language and non-digital formats.
- Plan for people who cannot wear a mask, open a window, understand complex instructions or live without close personal assistance.
- Treat paid absence, food delivery, safe housing, accessible transport and personal assistance as part of infection prevention.
- Protect medicine refrigeration, oxygen, dialysis, infusion, maternity, mental-health and other time-sensitive care from service disruption.
- Agree how children will learn, play, maintain friendships and contact a trusted adult if caregivers become ill.
- Plan for people living alone, in shared or overcrowded housing, without internet access, or far from healthcare and shops.
- Include refugees, migrants and people who may fear authorities or be excluded by documentation, language or eligibility rules.
- Plan confidential support for domestic abuse, exploitation, neglect, unsafe care and online harm.
- Keep service animals, pets and livestock in the illness, supply and care plan.
Mental readiness
Protect morale and clear thinking
- Use a fixed briefing: what is known, what is uncertain, what we are doing now and when we will review it.
- Limit news to scheduled checks and choose one person to monitor updates, with a backup who can take over.
- Keep a small morale kit with tea, coffee, boiled sweets, familiar food, music, games, crafts, prayer or another household comfort.
- Protect private time and quiet space. Constant togetherness can become a serious stressor during prolonged restrictions or illness.
- Give children truthful, age-appropriate explanations and predictable routines without making them responsible for adult fear.
- Rotate care, cooking, cleaning, information and contact tasks so one person does not become permanently alert or indispensable.
- Maintain safe social connection and mutual aid. Isolation may reduce infection exposure while increasing loneliness, grief and mental-health risk.
- Seek qualified support when anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, trauma, substance use, conflict or withdrawal threatens safety or daily care.
Common mistakes
What to avoid
- Assuming the next pandemic will spread, behave or respond to controls exactly like COVID-19.
- Waiting for total certainty or a dramatic announcement before making low-cost, reversible preparations.
- Treating every member of the public as panicked, selfish or dangerous.
- Confusing inability to comply with indifference, or blaming people without considering work, money, housing, disability and care.
- Clearing shelves, hoarding prescriptions or competing for scarce medical equipment.
- Using old isolation, testing, vaccination or treatment advice after official guidance has changed.
- Relying on one mask, supplement, disinfectant, air cleaner, test or medicine as a complete solution.
- Following unofficial treatments, altering prescribed medicine or using veterinary and industrial products without qualified clinical advice.
- Sharing unverified casualty figures, outbreak locations, miracle cures or accusations against groups.
- Avoiding urgent healthcare because routine services, visiting rules or public messages have changed.
- Treating the end of restrictions as proof that bereavement, Long COVID, delayed care and financial recovery are complete.
Evidence and review
Sources behind this guide
Prepare Now uses authoritative government, humanitarian and public-health material as a starting point. Source advice can be specific to a country, hazard or date, so check the current version for your location.
- Module 1: Resilience and PreparednessUK Covid-19 Inquiry
- Module 2: Core Decision-Making and Political GovernanceUK Covid-19 Inquiry
- Module 3: The Impact on Healthcare SystemsUK Covid-19 Inquiry
- Module 4: Vaccines and TherapeuticsUK Covid-19 Inquiry
- Every Story Matters RecordsUK Covid-19 Inquiry
- Pandemic Preparedness Strategy: Building Our CapabilitiesUK Government
- Planning for Respiratory Pathogen PandemicsWorld Health Organization
- Learnings from COVID-19 for Future Pandemic PreparednessWorld Health Organization
- Risk Communication and Community EngagementWorld Health Organization
- Roadmap to Improve Indoor VentilationWorld Health Organization
- Ventilation to Reduce the Spread of Respiratory InfectionsUK Government
- How to Avoid Catching and Spreading COVID-19NHS
- Preventing Respiratory IllnessesUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Treatment of Respiratory VirusesUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Sustaining Behaviours to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 TransmissionUK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
- Public Perceptions and Experiences of Extra Buying at the Onset of COVID-19PLOS ONE
- Sustaining Mutual Aid Groups During and Beyond the PandemicFrontiers in Psychology
Editorial status: first staging edition. Safety-critical instructions will receive specialist and jurisdiction review before public launch.