#48: COVID Calling
How The Ball Way Took On A Pandemic
Back in 2006, I was part of what we jokingly called Ball Corporation’s “bird flu committee.”
Organized by Joette-Keown Bailey, who led the company’s environmental, health & safety department, the jovial committee met initially because something called “bird flu” had emerged somewhere in the world as an “illness” that “might cross over” to humans.
Most of us knew little to nothing about bird flu at the time, or how to plan for a global pandemic. And during the several months we met and built out a crisis plan for such an event (aided greatly by the CDC), we treated it as a useful exercise that likely would not be needed.
It wasn’t, in fact, needed.
At one point I think we even created a mascot for the bird flu committee, featuring a chicken that looked more angry than sick.
