But this lull is good news for risk managers. For the time being, people are safe from a pandemic, and its also given risk managers a real chance to review checks and balances for such a disaster and make sure contingency plans are in place. Practice runs are great, but there is nothing like the real event to test a plan.

And how can you possibly over-plan for such an event? There will always be things that should have happened, plans that should have been in place, supplies you could have had on hand. Better to over-plan and have the virus fizzle out than risk being unprepared with a full-blown crisis to deal with.

Several risk managers have mentioned the granddaddy of fizzles, Y2K, when warnings were direand endless. All your computers could crash, you could end up stuck on an elevator after midnight, you might not be able get e-mail, yadda-yadda-yadda. The possibilities were endless.

But these very real scenarios set the contingency wheels in motion for planning that is still paying off. In fact, many of those Y2K plans were the foundation for emergency plans that are still being used today.

So while its a huge relief that H1N1 hasnt blown into a full-scale pandemic, after this test of their emergency plans, corporate and public risk managers may have a little time now to shore up those plans and do whatever is necessary to be prepared for the next timehopefully not this fall.

Corporate and public risk managers, did H1N1 point out anything that needed to be added or tweaked in your plan? Will you be making any changes?