AGRICULTURE & FOOD DEFENSE ARCHIVES
H1N1: Learning from a Less-Than-Worst-Case Scenario
Craig DeAtley
April 14, 2010
The best that can be said, usually, about worst-case scenarios, after the fact, is that they never actually happened. But the just-in-case preparations for the 2009-10 H1N1 “Swine Flu” global scare generated some residual training benefits, and even the mistakes made can, and should, be transmogrified into valuable lessons learned.
Pandemics Are In The Air
Diana Hopkins
April 7, 2010
Lightning strikes are sudden and spectacular, highly visible, and extremely violent. Not to mention lethal. Bacteria and viruses are just the opposite – totally invisible, in fact. But they kill many more people, in every country in the world, year after year than lightning does. It may be helpful to
H1N1: A Lesson for Healthcare Preparedness
Theodore Tully
April 4, 2010
The numerous mistakes, misunderstandings, and miscalculations made in preparing for the potential loss of perhaps millions of lives during the 2009-10 global pandemic that never happened do not represent a total loss. Just the opposite, in fact – if (a very big if) political decision makers, emergency managers, and healthcare
Protecting Citizens by Predicting Future Threats
Jennifer Smither
December 30, 2009
The threat is imminent, and can become a reality at almost any time. But no one knows about it except those who plan to carry out the threat. Chicago’s new District Intelligence Bulletin System (DIBS) is helping to even the odds by the extremely rapid dissemination, to law-enforcement agencies throughout
Emergency Preparedness in Healthcare – 2010 & Beyond
Theodore Tully
December 9, 2009
Emergency planners, political and budget decision makers, and the general public are almost always more focused on preparing for last year’s hurricane than they are concerned about this year’s sudden earthquake, or tsunami, or – much more likely – long-predicted pandemic. Which is why common sense must sometimes take precedence.
Biopreparedness and the Hydra of Bioterrorism
Diana Hopkins
November 11, 2009
Science is wonderful! Except when it is not. One of the almost inevitable problems facing researchers in the biological sciences is how to ensure that their discoveries are used to benefit mankind. Unfortunately, achieving that enviable goal may be a true Mission Impossible.
Field-Based Patient Tracking: Real-Time Data Sharing Comes of Age
Rodrigo (Roddy) Moscoso
November 4, 2009
The old saying that the job “”isn’t done until the paperwork has been completed”” is particularly true if the “paperwork” data – vital signs, indications of internal bleeding, etc., collected at the scene of a car accident or other incident – is somehow lost before, during or after the patient’s
Communicating With the Public During a Pandemic Influenza
Amanda Rhyne and Sarah Weiss
October 28, 2009
The United States is home to probably the most ethnically diverse population in the world. That is a blessing in many ways – but it poses major difficulties for emergency-management officials and other leaders in times of crisis, when the responsibility of warning the public becomes a polyglot challenge.
Telemedicine: Funding Increases & Rapid-Paced Development
Diana Hopkins
October 21, 2009
It started with extremely low-tech audio communications, and in recent years telemedicine technology has spawned a spectrum of much more advanced systems and devices that are of literally life-or-death importance to many citizens in distress. But the paperwork – specifically including development and performance standards – has not kept up.
‘Train As You Will Respond’: CDP Hits Half Million Milestone
Kate Rosenblatt
September 23, 2009
FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness has become a world-class model for all-hazards training in a steadily increasing and widely heralded number of courses covering the entire spectrum of the new and still emerging threats in the Brave New World of the 21st century.
Agricultural Incidents and Effective Multi-Agency Coordination
Mark Ghilarducci and Frank Castro
September 16, 2009
An attack on U.S. cities could topple skyscrapers, destroy seaports, and block highways, tunnels, and bridges. Those are all local effects. An attack on the nation’s food supply could sicken the entire nation, so coordinating a response and recovery operation require a different approach.
A New and Challenging Era for Rural Homeland Security
Jonathan A. Dudek
August 5, 2009
For more than two centuries the great state of Maine was known and cherished for its rustic simplicity – which, of course, made it a particularly attractive take-off point for two of the Islamic fundamentalists involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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