AGRICULTURE & FOOD DEFENSE ARCHIVES

Hospital Emergency Departments – Infectious Diseases: The First Line of Defense

Very few Emergency Departments in U.S. hospitals can cope with a major outbreak of infectious diseases. But there is much that could & should be done before an outbreak occurs. Improved communications between and among all major medical facilities in the same geographic area should be the first priority, along

Reducing the H1N1 Risk: Public-Private Social Media Partnerships

In business, in politics, and in sports, one of the oldest human truths is that, “If you can’t beat them, join them!” That seemingly eternal verity is being tested again, very effectively, by CDC and the nation’s healthcare communities are using widgets, tweets, and Whyville to persuade the public at

U.S. Vaccine Development: Expediting the Process

Influenza and many other diseases spread with the speed of summer lightning. The “cure” for these frequently fatal viruses moves at a much slower pace – largely because the testing and validation processes take so long. Fortunately, there are new approaches coming into play to expedite those processes while still

Review of Medical Countermeasures and a New Federal Approach

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announces the allocation of $1.9 billion for new U.S. medical countermeasure capabilities – plus five “breakthrough” initiatives to get the ship underway and on a course both straight and true.

DHR, MEMA, the LEMs & Maryland’s WST Example

The 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama was a truly historic event in many ways – and for many reasons, not least of which is that it provided a “golden standard” opportunity for the State of Maryland and its National Capital Region partners to use, validate, and learn from a

Using Regulations to Neutralize Red Tape

In times of urgent need, a “probably acceptable” solution is almost always better than one that is demonstrably not very effective and/or has failed in the past. That is the common-sense understanding reflected in the Emergency Use Authorization rule that permits the FDA to approve apparently effective – but not

Compare Your Thoughts with Those from National Experts on…Pandemic Preparedness & Response

The nation’s “Pandemic Preparedness & Response” capabilities – and deficiencies – are examined, debated, and discussed by the DOMPREP40 panel of career emergency-management and domestic-preparedness professionals. As with previous such surveys, readers are asked, and cordially invited, to make their own judgments on a broad spectrum of these literally life-or-death matters.

H1N1: Learning from a Less-Than-Worst-Case Scenario

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

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

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

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 the entire city,

Emergency Preparedness in Healthcare – 2010 & Beyond

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.

TWITTER

Follow Us

Get Instant Access

Subscribe today to Domestic Preparedness and get real-world insights for safer communities.

Translate »