HHS introduces Pandemic Severity Index based on CFR

On February 1, 2007 the US Health & Human Services released a Community Mitigation Guidance report for “Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions” (NPIs).  This report introduced, for the first time, a Pandemic Severity Index (PSI) in which the case fatality ratio (CFR) (the proportion of deaths among clinically ill persons) serves as the critical driver for categorizing the severity of a pandemic. [1]

NPI’s of isolation and quarantine were promoted  as “voluntary”.   Teleworking was promoted – as online was still ramping up.

The CFR is “a single criterion that will likely be known even early in a pandemic when small clusters and outbreak are occurring”, such as was known for COVID-19 in February 2020. [2]