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As Gulf Coast Rescues Continue, New Reports Highlight Disaster Complacency
by Anthony L. Kimery
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Complacency toward disasters in general continues to be growing concern
"Complacency is enemy number one when it comes to preparing for another influenza pandemic," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said earlier this month.
Indeed, apathy toward the still very real threat of a pandemic is one of the greatest threats to public health and may undermine efforts to improve detection of influenza strains in developing countries, said Dr. Julie Hall, deputy regional adviser on communicable disease surveillance and response with the WHO's Western Pacific region.
?The threat of a pandemic, of a virus jumping from animals into humans, is still there, but the biggest threat that we have now is `flu fatigue','' Hall said this week in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the new report, ?Pandemic Preparedness in the States: An Assessment of Progress and Opportunity,? released this week by the National Governors Association's (NGA) Center for Best Practices, stated ?while awareness of the pandemic threat peaked in 2006 as the global media began following the spread of the H5N1 virus among bird populations and reported human deaths from close exposure to the virus in birds, the issue has since faded from the public?s radar and there is a growing skepticism in some quarters that the threat ever was, or ever will be, real.?
?Even though this issue largely has fallen off the public?s radar, states recognize that successfully managing a pandemic outbreak requires a sustained effort to combat the threat in all sectors of the economy and in society as a whole,? said Chris Logan, program director of the NGA Center?s Homeland Security and Technology Division. ?The conclusions of this report serve a vital national service: they demonstrate both the extent of our readiness as well as the gaps in our current preparedness.?
Although authorities agree that the threat of a pandemic is just as real today as it was in 2006, because of complacency, ?public preparedness for a pandemic remains insufficient,? the NGA report warned.
HSToday.us has repeatedly reported that complacency is a growing concern among public health authorities and planners throughout the US and the world, and not just toward the risk of a pandemic, but toward disasters in general, as the massive search and rescue operations in south Texas following Hurricane Ike have provided evidence for. Tens of thousands living in areas that were expected to be hardest hit by the hurricane, and were, refused to heed evacuation orders.
Similarly, a new study by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the Children's Health Fund found that during a disaster such as an earthquake or terrorist attack, nearly two-thirds of US parents would disregard evacuation orders and rush to pick up their kids from school, possibly impeding vital law enforcement, emergency response and rescue efforts by contributing to traffic congestion.
Disturbingly, but not surprisingly, the NGA report pointed out that ?one of the major threats to the health care sector cited in the analysis is the unrealistic expectation by the public that personal preparedness is unnecessary because of a general attitude that a) a pandemic is unlikely to happen, and b) even if it does happen, health care services will be widely available, the sector will be able to provide the standard of care available during ?normal? times, and medicines will be readily available to treat both the disease and its primary and secondary symptoms.?
Similarly, the Dec. 2004 Harris Poll, ?Trauma Care: Public?s Knowledge and Perception of Importance,? conducted for the Coalition for American Trauma Care, found two thirds of Americans (66 percent) ?are extremely or very comfortable that they would receive the best medical care if they had a serious or life threatening injury;? 83 percent believe there is a trauma center in their state and more than half believe there?s a trauma center near where they live.
Thirty-five percent believe the closest hospital is a trauma center. Meanwhile, six in ten Americans ?would be very or extremely concerned if they found out there was no trauma center within easy reach of where they live, while 74 percent would be extremely concerned to learn trauma centers in their states were closing or reducing services.
The NGA and Harris Poll?s findings are correct; the general population is terribly ignorant and ill-informed about the state of preparedness and emergency services capabilities, especially during a mass casualty disaster.
The NGA?s findings ?served to confirm warnings made in other settings that the health care system in the United States is quite fragile, lacking surplus capacity in personnel, financing, or resources. For example, surges of patients during a pandemic, even if spread across the several weeks of a pandemic wave, are likely to severely stress, if not overwhelm, local health facilities.
The NGA?s report concluded that, ?to a significant degree, the public has so far been left out of discussions about pandemic preparedness. General preparedness information has focused on self-reliance strategies such as stockpiling food, water, and other necessities. State and local governments should engage the public in deliberations about, and request that the public inform decisions on, school closure and other issues with difficult ethical dimensions, including:
Full article:
by Anthony L. Kimery
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Complacency toward disasters in general continues to be growing concern
"Complacency is enemy number one when it comes to preparing for another influenza pandemic," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said earlier this month.
Indeed, apathy toward the still very real threat of a pandemic is one of the greatest threats to public health and may undermine efforts to improve detection of influenza strains in developing countries, said Dr. Julie Hall, deputy regional adviser on communicable disease surveillance and response with the WHO's Western Pacific region.
?The threat of a pandemic, of a virus jumping from animals into humans, is still there, but the biggest threat that we have now is `flu fatigue','' Hall said this week in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the new report, ?Pandemic Preparedness in the States: An Assessment of Progress and Opportunity,? released this week by the National Governors Association's (NGA) Center for Best Practices, stated ?while awareness of the pandemic threat peaked in 2006 as the global media began following the spread of the H5N1 virus among bird populations and reported human deaths from close exposure to the virus in birds, the issue has since faded from the public?s radar and there is a growing skepticism in some quarters that the threat ever was, or ever will be, real.?
?Even though this issue largely has fallen off the public?s radar, states recognize that successfully managing a pandemic outbreak requires a sustained effort to combat the threat in all sectors of the economy and in society as a whole,? said Chris Logan, program director of the NGA Center?s Homeland Security and Technology Division. ?The conclusions of this report serve a vital national service: they demonstrate both the extent of our readiness as well as the gaps in our current preparedness.?
Although authorities agree that the threat of a pandemic is just as real today as it was in 2006, because of complacency, ?public preparedness for a pandemic remains insufficient,? the NGA report warned.
HSToday.us has repeatedly reported that complacency is a growing concern among public health authorities and planners throughout the US and the world, and not just toward the risk of a pandemic, but toward disasters in general, as the massive search and rescue operations in south Texas following Hurricane Ike have provided evidence for. Tens of thousands living in areas that were expected to be hardest hit by the hurricane, and were, refused to heed evacuation orders.
Similarly, a new study by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the Children's Health Fund found that during a disaster such as an earthquake or terrorist attack, nearly two-thirds of US parents would disregard evacuation orders and rush to pick up their kids from school, possibly impeding vital law enforcement, emergency response and rescue efforts by contributing to traffic congestion.
Disturbingly, but not surprisingly, the NGA report pointed out that ?one of the major threats to the health care sector cited in the analysis is the unrealistic expectation by the public that personal preparedness is unnecessary because of a general attitude that a) a pandemic is unlikely to happen, and b) even if it does happen, health care services will be widely available, the sector will be able to provide the standard of care available during ?normal? times, and medicines will be readily available to treat both the disease and its primary and secondary symptoms.?
Similarly, the Dec. 2004 Harris Poll, ?Trauma Care: Public?s Knowledge and Perception of Importance,? conducted for the Coalition for American Trauma Care, found two thirds of Americans (66 percent) ?are extremely or very comfortable that they would receive the best medical care if they had a serious or life threatening injury;? 83 percent believe there is a trauma center in their state and more than half believe there?s a trauma center near where they live.
Thirty-five percent believe the closest hospital is a trauma center. Meanwhile, six in ten Americans ?would be very or extremely concerned if they found out there was no trauma center within easy reach of where they live, while 74 percent would be extremely concerned to learn trauma centers in their states were closing or reducing services.
The NGA and Harris Poll?s findings are correct; the general population is terribly ignorant and ill-informed about the state of preparedness and emergency services capabilities, especially during a mass casualty disaster.
The NGA?s findings ?served to confirm warnings made in other settings that the health care system in the United States is quite fragile, lacking surplus capacity in personnel, financing, or resources. For example, surges of patients during a pandemic, even if spread across the several weeks of a pandemic wave, are likely to severely stress, if not overwhelm, local health facilities.
The NGA?s report concluded that, ?to a significant degree, the public has so far been left out of discussions about pandemic preparedness. General preparedness information has focused on self-reliance strategies such as stockpiling food, water, and other necessities. State and local governments should engage the public in deliberations about, and request that the public inform decisions on, school closure and other issues with difficult ethical dimensions, including:
Full article:
