preparedness Legal Provision for Crisis Preparedness: Foresight not Hindsight By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 17:03:31 +0000 21 April 2020 Dr Patricia Lewis Research Director, Conflict, Science & Transformation; Director, International Security Programme @PatriciaMary COVID-19 is proving to be a grave threat to humanity. But this is not a one-off, there will be future crises, and we can be better prepared to mitigate them. 2020-04-21-Nurse-COVID-Test Examining a patient while testing for COVID-19 at the Velocity Urgent Care in Woodbridge, Virginia. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. A controversial debate during COVID-19 is the state of readiness within governments and health systems for a pandemic, with lines of the debate drawn on the issues of testing provision, personal protective equipment (PPE), and the speed of decision-making.President Macron in a speech to the nation admitted French medical workers did not have enough PPE and that mistakes had been made: ‘Were we prepared for this crisis? We have to say that no, we weren’t, but we have to admit our errors … and we will learn from this’.In reality few governments were fully prepared. In years to come, all will ask: ‘how could we have been better prepared, what did we do wrong, and what can we learn?’. But after every crisis, governments ask these same questions.Most countries have put in place national risk assessments and established processes and systems to monitor and stress-test crisis-preparedness. So why have some countries been seemingly better prepared?Comparing different approachesSome have had more time and been able to watch the spread of the disease and learn from those countries that had it first. Others have taken their own routes, and there will be much to learn from comparing these different approaches in the longer run.Governments in Asia have been strongly influenced by the experience of the SARS epidemic in 2002-3 and - South Korea in particular - the MERS-CoV outbreak in 2015 which was the largest outside the Middle East. Several carried out preparatory work in terms of risk assessment, preparedness measures and resilience planning for a wide range of threats.Case Study of Preparedness: South KoreaBy 2007, South Korea had established the Division of Public Health Crisis Response in Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and, in 2016, the KCDC Center for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response had established a round-the-clock Emergency Operations Center with rapid response teams.KCDC is responsible for the distribution of antiviral stockpiles to 16 cities and provinces that are required by law to hold and manage antiviral stockpiles.And, at the international level, there are frameworks for preparedness for pandemics. The International Health Regulations (IHR) - adopted at the 2005 World Health Assembly and binding on member states - require countries to report certain disease outbreaks and public health events to the World Health Organization (WHO) and ‘prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade’.Under IHR, governments committed to a programme of building core capacities including coordination, surveillance, response and preparedness. The UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk highlights disaster preparedness for effective response as one of its main purposes and has already incorporated these measures into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other Agenda 2030 initiatives. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said COVID-19 ‘poses a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security’ and that ‘a signal of unity and resolve from the Council would count for a lot at this anxious time’.Case Study of Preparedness: United StatesThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) established PERRC – the Preparedness for Emergency Response Research Centers - as a requirement of the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which required research to ‘improve federal, state, local, and tribal public health preparedness and response systems’.The 2006 Act has since been supplanted by the 2019 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act. This created the post of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) and authorised the development and acquisitions of medical countermeasures and a quadrennial National Health Security Strategy.The 2019 Act also set in place a number of measures including the requirement for the US government to re-evaluate several important metrics of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement and the Hospital Preparedness Program, and a requirement for a report on the states of preparedness and response in US healthcare facilities.This pandemic looks set to continue to be a grave threat to humanity. But there will also be future pandemics – whether another type of coronavirus or a new influenza virus – and our species will be threatened again, we just don’t know when.Other disasters too will befall us – we already see the impacts of climate change arriving on our doorsteps characterised by increased numbers and intensity of floods, hurricanes, fires, crop failure and other manifestations of a warming, increasingly turbulent atmosphere and we will continue to suffer major volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. All high impact, unknown probability events.Preparedness for an unknown future is expensive and requires a great deal of effort for events that may not happen within the preparers’ lifetimes. It is hard to imagine now, but people will forget this crisis, and revert to their imagined projections of the future where crises don’t occur, and progress follows progress. But history shows us otherwise.Preparations for future crises always fall prey to financial cuts and austerity measures in lean times unless there is a mechanism to prevent that. Cost-benefit analyses will understandably tend to prioritise the urgent over the long-term. So governments should put in place legislation – or strengthen existing legislation – now to ensure their countries are as prepared as possible for whatever crisis is coming.Such a legal requirement would require governments to report back to parliament every year on the state of their national preparations detailing such measures as:The exact levels of stocks of essential materials (including medical equipment)The ability of hospitals to cope with large influx of patientsHow many drills, exercises and simulations had been organised – and their findingsWhat was being done to implement lessons learned & improve preparednessIn addition, further actions should be taken:Parliamentary committees such as the UK Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy should scrutinise the government’s readiness for the potential threats outlined in the National Risk register for Civil Emergencies in-depth on an annual basis.Parliamentarians, including ministers, with responsibility for national security and resilience should participate in drills, table-top exercises and simulations to see for themselves the problems inherent with dealing with crises.All governments should have a minister (or equivalent) with the sole responsibility for national crisis preparedness and resilience. The Minister would be empowered to liaise internationally and coordinate local responses such as local resilience groups.There should be ring-fenced budget lines in annual budgets specifically for preparedness and resilience measures, annually reported on and assessed by parliaments as part of the due diligence process.And at the international level:The UN Security Council should establish a Crisis Preparedness Committee to bolster the ability of United Nations Member States to respond to international crisis such as pandemics, within their borders and across regions. The Committee would function in a similar fashion as the Counter Terrorism Committee that was established following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.States should present reports on their level of preparedness to the UN Security Council. The Crisis Preparedness Committee could establish a group of experts who would conduct expert assessments of each member state’s risks and preparedness and facilitate technical assistance as required.Regional bodies such as the OSCE, ASEAN and ARF, the AU, the OAS, the PIF etc could also request national reports on crisis preparedness for discussion and cooperation at the regional level.COVID-19 has been referred to as the 9/11 of crisis preparedness and response. Just as that shocking terrorist attack shifted the world and created a series of measures to address terrorism, we now recognise our security frameworks need far more emphasis on being prepared and being resilient. Whatever has been done in the past, it is clear that was nowhere near enough and that has to change.Case Study of Preparedness: The UKThe National Risk Register was first published in 2008 as part of the undertakings laid out in the National Security Strategy (the UK also published the Biological Security Strategy in July 2018). Now entitled the National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies it has been updated regularly to analyse the risks of major emergencies that could affect the UK in the next five years and provide resilience advice and guidance.The latest edition - produced in 2017 when the UK had a Minister for Government Resilience and Efficiency - placed the risk of a pandemic influenza in the ‘highly likely and most severe’ category. It stood out from all the other identified risks, whereas an emerging disease (such as COVID-19) was identified as ‘highly likely but with moderate impact’.However, much preparatory work for an influenza pandemic is the same as for COVID-19, particularly in prepositioning large stocks of PPE, readiness within large hospitals, and the creation of new hospitals and facilities.One key issue is that the 2017 NHS Operating Framework for Managing the Response to Pandemic Influenza was dependent on pre-positioned ’just in case’ stockpiles of PPE. But as it became clear the PPE stocks were not adequate for the pandemic, it was reported that recommendations about the stockpile by NERVTAG (the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group which advises the government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory viruses) had been subjected to an ‘economic assessment’ and decisions reversed on, for example, eye protection.The UK chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies, when speaking at the World Health Organization about Operation Cygnus – a 2016 three-day exercise on a flu pandemic in the UK – reportedly said the UK was not ready for a severe flu attack and ‘a lot of things need improving’.Aware of the significance of the situation, the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy launched an inquiry in 2019 on ‘Biosecurity and human health: preparing for emerging infectious diseases and bioweapons’ which intended to coordinate a cross-government approach to biosecurity threats. But the inquiry had to postpone its oral hearings scheduled for late October 2019 and, because of the general election in December 2019, the committee was obliged to close the inquiry. Full Article
preparedness Legal Provision for Crisis Preparedness: Foresight not Hindsight By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 17:03:31 +0000 21 April 2020 Dr Patricia Lewis Research Director, Conflict, Science & Transformation; Director, International Security Programme @PatriciaMary COVID-19 is proving to be a grave threat to humanity. But this is not a one-off, there will be future crises, and we can be better prepared to mitigate them. 2020-04-21-Nurse-COVID-Test Examining a patient while testing for COVID-19 at the Velocity Urgent Care in Woodbridge, Virginia. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. A controversial debate during COVID-19 is the state of readiness within governments and health systems for a pandemic, with lines of the debate drawn on the issues of testing provision, personal protective equipment (PPE), and the speed of decision-making.President Macron in a speech to the nation admitted French medical workers did not have enough PPE and that mistakes had been made: ‘Were we prepared for this crisis? We have to say that no, we weren’t, but we have to admit our errors … and we will learn from this’.In reality few governments were fully prepared. In years to come, all will ask: ‘how could we have been better prepared, what did we do wrong, and what can we learn?’. But after every crisis, governments ask these same questions.Most countries have put in place national risk assessments and established processes and systems to monitor and stress-test crisis-preparedness. So why have some countries been seemingly better prepared?Comparing different approachesSome have had more time and been able to watch the spread of the disease and learn from those countries that had it first. Others have taken their own routes, and there will be much to learn from comparing these different approaches in the longer run.Governments in Asia have been strongly influenced by the experience of the SARS epidemic in 2002-3 and - South Korea in particular - the MERS-CoV outbreak in 2015 which was the largest outside the Middle East. Several carried out preparatory work in terms of risk assessment, preparedness measures and resilience planning for a wide range of threats.Case Study of Preparedness: South KoreaBy 2007, South Korea had established the Division of Public Health Crisis Response in Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and, in 2016, the KCDC Center for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response had established a round-the-clock Emergency Operations Center with rapid response teams.KCDC is responsible for the distribution of antiviral stockpiles to 16 cities and provinces that are required by law to hold and manage antiviral stockpiles.And, at the international level, there are frameworks for preparedness for pandemics. The International Health Regulations (IHR) - adopted at the 2005 World Health Assembly and binding on member states - require countries to report certain disease outbreaks and public health events to the World Health Organization (WHO) and ‘prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade’.Under IHR, governments committed to a programme of building core capacities including coordination, surveillance, response and preparedness. The UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk highlights disaster preparedness for effective response as one of its main purposes and has already incorporated these measures into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other Agenda 2030 initiatives. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said COVID-19 ‘poses a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security’ and that ‘a signal of unity and resolve from the Council would count for a lot at this anxious time’.Case Study of Preparedness: United StatesThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) established PERRC – the Preparedness for Emergency Response Research Centers - as a requirement of the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which required research to ‘improve federal, state, local, and tribal public health preparedness and response systems’.The 2006 Act has since been supplanted by the 2019 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act. This created the post of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) and authorised the development and acquisitions of medical countermeasures and a quadrennial National Health Security Strategy.The 2019 Act also set in place a number of measures including the requirement for the US government to re-evaluate several important metrics of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement and the Hospital Preparedness Program, and a requirement for a report on the states of preparedness and response in US healthcare facilities.This pandemic looks set to continue to be a grave threat to humanity. But there will also be future pandemics – whether another type of coronavirus or a new influenza virus – and our species will be threatened again, we just don’t know when.Other disasters too will befall us – we already see the impacts of climate change arriving on our doorsteps characterised by increased numbers and intensity of floods, hurricanes, fires, crop failure and other manifestations of a warming, increasingly turbulent atmosphere and we will continue to suffer major volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. All high impact, unknown probability events.Preparedness for an unknown future is expensive and requires a great deal of effort for events that may not happen within the preparers’ lifetimes. It is hard to imagine now, but people will forget this crisis, and revert to their imagined projections of the future where crises don’t occur, and progress follows progress. But history shows us otherwise.Preparations for future crises always fall prey to financial cuts and austerity measures in lean times unless there is a mechanism to prevent that. Cost-benefit analyses will understandably tend to prioritise the urgent over the long-term. So governments should put in place legislation – or strengthen existing legislation – now to ensure their countries are as prepared as possible for whatever crisis is coming.Such a legal requirement would require governments to report back to parliament every year on the state of their national preparations detailing such measures as:The exact levels of stocks of essential materials (including medical equipment)The ability of hospitals to cope with large influx of patientsHow many drills, exercises and simulations had been organised – and their findingsWhat was being done to implement lessons learned & improve preparednessIn addition, further actions should be taken:Parliamentary committees such as the UK Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy should scrutinise the government’s readiness for the potential threats outlined in the National Risk register for Civil Emergencies in-depth on an annual basis.Parliamentarians, including ministers, with responsibility for national security and resilience should participate in drills, table-top exercises and simulations to see for themselves the problems inherent with dealing with crises.All governments should have a minister (or equivalent) with the sole responsibility for national crisis preparedness and resilience. The Minister would be empowered to liaise internationally and coordinate local responses such as local resilience groups.There should be ring-fenced budget lines in annual budgets specifically for preparedness and resilience measures, annually reported on and assessed by parliaments as part of the due diligence process.And at the international level:The UN Security Council should establish a Crisis Preparedness Committee to bolster the ability of United Nations Member States to respond to international crisis such as pandemics, within their borders and across regions. The Committee would function in a similar fashion as the Counter Terrorism Committee that was established following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.States should present reports on their level of preparedness to the UN Security Council. The Crisis Preparedness Committee could establish a group of experts who would conduct expert assessments of each member state’s risks and preparedness and facilitate technical assistance as required.Regional bodies such as the OSCE, ASEAN and ARF, the AU, the OAS, the PIF etc could also request national reports on crisis preparedness for discussion and cooperation at the regional level.COVID-19 has been referred to as the 9/11 of crisis preparedness and response. Just as that shocking terrorist attack shifted the world and created a series of measures to address terrorism, we now recognise our security frameworks need far more emphasis on being prepared and being resilient. Whatever has been done in the past, it is clear that was nowhere near enough and that has to change.Case Study of Preparedness: The UKThe National Risk Register was first published in 2008 as part of the undertakings laid out in the National Security Strategy (the UK also published the Biological Security Strategy in July 2018). Now entitled the National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies it has been updated regularly to analyse the risks of major emergencies that could affect the UK in the next five years and provide resilience advice and guidance.The latest edition - produced in 2017 when the UK had a Minister for Government Resilience and Efficiency - placed the risk of a pandemic influenza in the ‘highly likely and most severe’ category. It stood out from all the other identified risks, whereas an emerging disease (such as COVID-19) was identified as ‘highly likely but with moderate impact’.However, much preparatory work for an influenza pandemic is the same as for COVID-19, particularly in prepositioning large stocks of PPE, readiness within large hospitals, and the creation of new hospitals and facilities.One key issue is that the 2017 NHS Operating Framework for Managing the Response to Pandemic Influenza was dependent on pre-positioned ’just in case’ stockpiles of PPE. But as it became clear the PPE stocks were not adequate for the pandemic, it was reported that recommendations about the stockpile by NERVTAG (the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group which advises the government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory viruses) had been subjected to an ‘economic assessment’ and decisions reversed on, for example, eye protection.The UK chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies, when speaking at the World Health Organization about Operation Cygnus – a 2016 three-day exercise on a flu pandemic in the UK – reportedly said the UK was not ready for a severe flu attack and ‘a lot of things need improving’.Aware of the significance of the situation, the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy launched an inquiry in 2019 on ‘Biosecurity and human health: preparing for emerging infectious diseases and bioweapons’ which intended to coordinate a cross-government approach to biosecurity threats. But the inquiry had to postpone its oral hearings scheduled for late October 2019 and, because of the general election in December 2019, the committee was obliged to close the inquiry. Full Article
preparedness Legal Provision for Crisis Preparedness: Foresight not Hindsight By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 17:03:31 +0000 21 April 2020 Dr Patricia Lewis Research Director, Conflict, Science & Transformation; Director, International Security Programme @PatriciaMary COVID-19 is proving to be a grave threat to humanity. But this is not a one-off, there will be future crises, and we can be better prepared to mitigate them. 2020-04-21-Nurse-COVID-Test Examining a patient while testing for COVID-19 at the Velocity Urgent Care in Woodbridge, Virginia. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. A controversial debate during COVID-19 is the state of readiness within governments and health systems for a pandemic, with lines of the debate drawn on the issues of testing provision, personal protective equipment (PPE), and the speed of decision-making.President Macron in a speech to the nation admitted French medical workers did not have enough PPE and that mistakes had been made: ‘Were we prepared for this crisis? We have to say that no, we weren’t, but we have to admit our errors … and we will learn from this’.In reality few governments were fully prepared. In years to come, all will ask: ‘how could we have been better prepared, what did we do wrong, and what can we learn?’. But after every crisis, governments ask these same questions.Most countries have put in place national risk assessments and established processes and systems to monitor and stress-test crisis-preparedness. So why have some countries been seemingly better prepared?Comparing different approachesSome have had more time and been able to watch the spread of the disease and learn from those countries that had it first. Others have taken their own routes, and there will be much to learn from comparing these different approaches in the longer run.Governments in Asia have been strongly influenced by the experience of the SARS epidemic in 2002-3 and - South Korea in particular - the MERS-CoV outbreak in 2015 which was the largest outside the Middle East. Several carried out preparatory work in terms of risk assessment, preparedness measures and resilience planning for a wide range of threats.Case Study of Preparedness: South KoreaBy 2007, South Korea had established the Division of Public Health Crisis Response in Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and, in 2016, the KCDC Center for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response had established a round-the-clock Emergency Operations Center with rapid response teams.KCDC is responsible for the distribution of antiviral stockpiles to 16 cities and provinces that are required by law to hold and manage antiviral stockpiles.And, at the international level, there are frameworks for preparedness for pandemics. The International Health Regulations (IHR) - adopted at the 2005 World Health Assembly and binding on member states - require countries to report certain disease outbreaks and public health events to the World Health Organization (WHO) and ‘prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade’.Under IHR, governments committed to a programme of building core capacities including coordination, surveillance, response and preparedness. The UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk highlights disaster preparedness for effective response as one of its main purposes and has already incorporated these measures into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other Agenda 2030 initiatives. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said COVID-19 ‘poses a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security’ and that ‘a signal of unity and resolve from the Council would count for a lot at this anxious time’.Case Study of Preparedness: United StatesThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) established PERRC – the Preparedness for Emergency Response Research Centers - as a requirement of the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which required research to ‘improve federal, state, local, and tribal public health preparedness and response systems’.The 2006 Act has since been supplanted by the 2019 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act. This created the post of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) and authorised the development and acquisitions of medical countermeasures and a quadrennial National Health Security Strategy.The 2019 Act also set in place a number of measures including the requirement for the US government to re-evaluate several important metrics of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement and the Hospital Preparedness Program, and a requirement for a report on the states of preparedness and response in US healthcare facilities.This pandemic looks set to continue to be a grave threat to humanity. But there will also be future pandemics – whether another type of coronavirus or a new influenza virus – and our species will be threatened again, we just don’t know when.Other disasters too will befall us – we already see the impacts of climate change arriving on our doorsteps characterised by increased numbers and intensity of floods, hurricanes, fires, crop failure and other manifestations of a warming, increasingly turbulent atmosphere and we will continue to suffer major volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. All high impact, unknown probability events.Preparedness for an unknown future is expensive and requires a great deal of effort for events that may not happen within the preparers’ lifetimes. It is hard to imagine now, but people will forget this crisis, and revert to their imagined projections of the future where crises don’t occur, and progress follows progress. But history shows us otherwise.Preparations for future crises always fall prey to financial cuts and austerity measures in lean times unless there is a mechanism to prevent that. Cost-benefit analyses will understandably tend to prioritise the urgent over the long-term. So governments should put in place legislation – or strengthen existing legislation – now to ensure their countries are as prepared as possible for whatever crisis is coming.Such a legal requirement would require governments to report back to parliament every year on the state of their national preparations detailing such measures as:The exact levels of stocks of essential materials (including medical equipment)The ability of hospitals to cope with large influx of patientsHow many drills, exercises and simulations had been organised – and their findingsWhat was being done to implement lessons learned & improve preparednessIn addition, further actions should be taken:Parliamentary committees such as the UK Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy should scrutinise the government’s readiness for the potential threats outlined in the National Risk register for Civil Emergencies in-depth on an annual basis.Parliamentarians, including ministers, with responsibility for national security and resilience should participate in drills, table-top exercises and simulations to see for themselves the problems inherent with dealing with crises.All governments should have a minister (or equivalent) with the sole responsibility for national crisis preparedness and resilience. The Minister would be empowered to liaise internationally and coordinate local responses such as local resilience groups.There should be ring-fenced budget lines in annual budgets specifically for preparedness and resilience measures, annually reported on and assessed by parliaments as part of the due diligence process.And at the international level:The UN Security Council should establish a Crisis Preparedness Committee to bolster the ability of United Nations Member States to respond to international crisis such as pandemics, within their borders and across regions. The Committee would function in a similar fashion as the Counter Terrorism Committee that was established following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.States should present reports on their level of preparedness to the UN Security Council. The Crisis Preparedness Committee could establish a group of experts who would conduct expert assessments of each member state’s risks and preparedness and facilitate technical assistance as required.Regional bodies such as the OSCE, ASEAN and ARF, the AU, the OAS, the PIF etc could also request national reports on crisis preparedness for discussion and cooperation at the regional level.COVID-19 has been referred to as the 9/11 of crisis preparedness and response. Just as that shocking terrorist attack shifted the world and created a series of measures to address terrorism, we now recognise our security frameworks need far more emphasis on being prepared and being resilient. Whatever has been done in the past, it is clear that was nowhere near enough and that has to change.Case Study of Preparedness: The UKThe National Risk Register was first published in 2008 as part of the undertakings laid out in the National Security Strategy (the UK also published the Biological Security Strategy in July 2018). Now entitled the National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies it has been updated regularly to analyse the risks of major emergencies that could affect the UK in the next five years and provide resilience advice and guidance.The latest edition - produced in 2017 when the UK had a Minister for Government Resilience and Efficiency - placed the risk of a pandemic influenza in the ‘highly likely and most severe’ category. It stood out from all the other identified risks, whereas an emerging disease (such as COVID-19) was identified as ‘highly likely but with moderate impact’.However, much preparatory work for an influenza pandemic is the same as for COVID-19, particularly in prepositioning large stocks of PPE, readiness within large hospitals, and the creation of new hospitals and facilities.One key issue is that the 2017 NHS Operating Framework for Managing the Response to Pandemic Influenza was dependent on pre-positioned ’just in case’ stockpiles of PPE. But as it became clear the PPE stocks were not adequate for the pandemic, it was reported that recommendations about the stockpile by NERVTAG (the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group which advises the government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory viruses) had been subjected to an ‘economic assessment’ and decisions reversed on, for example, eye protection.The UK chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies, when speaking at the World Health Organization about Operation Cygnus – a 2016 three-day exercise on a flu pandemic in the UK – reportedly said the UK was not ready for a severe flu attack and ‘a lot of things need improving’.Aware of the significance of the situation, the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy launched an inquiry in 2019 on ‘Biosecurity and human health: preparing for emerging infectious diseases and bioweapons’ which intended to coordinate a cross-government approach to biosecurity threats. But the inquiry had to postpone its oral hearings scheduled for late October 2019 and, because of the general election in December 2019, the committee was obliged to close the inquiry. Full Article
preparedness New Engineering X Pandemic Preparedness programme to support global innovation and knowledge sharing By www.raeng.org.uk Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 13:00:00 +01:00 Full Article
preparedness Virus worries K-Town: Local agencies to discuss virus preparedness By www.ketchikandailynews.com Published On :: Full Article
preparedness Update: Delaware crew in California as officials increase “National Fire Preparedness Level” to maximum of 5 on a 5-point scale By news.delaware.gov Published On :: Thu, 13 Aug 2015 15:26:46 +0000 A wildfire crew led by the Delaware Forest Service is near completion of a two-week assignment on the Fork Complex Fire, a 28,736-acre blaze near Hayfork, California in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Almost 2,400 personnel are battling the fire that is currently 26 percent contained. The Fork Complex is one of several large wildfires in Northern California that together cover more than 223,000 acres, one of the major factors that prompted the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) to increase its National Preparedness Level today to the maximum of 5 on a 5-point scale. Full Article Department of Agriculture Forest Service Delaware Forest Service Delaware wildfire crew Fork Complex wildland firefighting
preparedness Public Health Seeks Volunteers for Emergency Preparedness Exercise By news.delaware.gov Published On :: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 15:16:05 +0000 The Division of Public Health (DPH) is looking for volunteers to participate in an emergency preparedness exercise on Saturday, September 28, 2019, at two Delaware Technical Community College (Delaware Tech) campuses. The purpose of the exercise is to evaluate the state’s ability to set up Points of Dispensing and simulate the dispersal of life-saving medication in an emergency situation. Full Article Delaware Health and Social Services Division of Public Health News DE Division of Public Health Delaware public health emergency preparedness
preparedness Community Preparedness Workshop for Seniors and People With Disabilities in Dover By news.delaware.gov Published On :: Mon, 10 Feb 2020 20:46:45 +0000 Smyrna – Are you prepared for an emergency or disaster? Disasters can strike suddenly, anytime and anywhere, and first responders may not be able to reach you right away. If you were unable to attend the Community Preparedness Workshop in Georgetown, a second workshop will be held on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at the Modern […] Full Article Delaware Emergency Management Agency Delaware Health and Social Services Department of Safety and Homeland Security Division of Public Health disaster preparedness emergency preparedness People with Disabilities preparedness public workshop Seniors
preparedness Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference and Exposition By www.justice.gov Published On :: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:32:48 EDT "From key federal partners, to policy experts, researchers, and front-line practitioners, each of you is an essential part of the incident response community," said Attorney General Holder. Full Article Speech
preparedness Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson Speaks at the Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference and Exposition By www.justice.gov Published On :: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:05:33 EDT "Our resilience is due, in great part, to our ability to come together at all levels of government to build and bolster a solid public safety infrastructure," said Assistant Attorney General Robinson. Full Article Speech
preparedness BP Products North America to Improve Spill Response Preparedness at Oil Terminals Nationwide By www.justice.gov Published On :: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:08:49 EDT BP Products North America, Inc. will pay a $210,000 penalty and implement an enhanced oil spill response program at its oil terminals nationwide, as well as a comprehensive compliance audit to resolve alleged violations of oil spill response regulations at its Curtis Bay Terminal in Maryland. Full Article OPA Press Releases
preparedness California NICU disaster preparedness By feeds.nature.com Published On :: 2020-05-08 Full Article
preparedness COVID-19 outbreak highlights critical gaps in school emergency preparedness By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:49:02 +0000 The COVID-19 epidemic sweeping the globe has affected millions of students, whose school closures have more often than not caught them, their teachers, and families by surprise. For some, it means missing class altogether, while others are trialing online learning—often facing difficulties with online connections, as well as motivational and psychosocial well-being challenges. These problems… Full Article
preparedness President Obama establishes a climate change preparedness and resilience task force By www.treehugger.com Published On :: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 12:51:20 -0400 Today, President Obama signed an Executive Order (E.O.) establishing a Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. Full Article Science
preparedness Kamal Haasan re-imagines India for 'post-COVID world', calls for 'epidemic preparedness budget' By www.mid-day.com Published On :: 20 Apr 2020 06:09:53 GMT Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan on Monday re-imagined India for the "post-COVID world" and suggested measures across different sectors, including an "epidemic preparedness budget" for the health sector. "While there are concerns, it's worth praising how this crisis is setting a precedent with state governments coming together and co-operating with each other as well as with the Centre. I sincerely hope this becomes a norm and help overcome perennial battles like the water crisis, pollution, migrants' woes, women's safety, communal violence, healthcare etc," Haasan said on his Twitter account. "The last full-scale war India fought was almost half a century ago, but poor healthcare is an everyday war leading to 1.6 million deaths annually. Yet, year after year our Defence budget overshadows the healthcare budget," Haasan stated and added that it's a "pity that India continues seeing Defence as a more newsworthy proposition compared to healthcare". He suggested that India needs to earmark an "epidemic preparedness budget with immediate effect". "We are under threat a lot more from within than from outside our borders. Our priority towards Health needs to be reimagined with a handsome budget to match," Haasan said. The Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) President later went on to talk about the Agriculture sector and said that India requires a 'Green Plus' revolution that firstly converts part of our agricultural land for an allied enterprise like processing, logistics, etc. "Secondly, we need to accelerate productivity maximization on a war footing. Boosting agro based MSMEs will help retain youth in the sector and build a sustainable and prosperous future for farming. This will also solve the problem of seasonal lack of work for farmers," Haasan said. He also suggested bringing India's vast informal sector into the formal fold. "Bringing India's informal workers under the formal fold must become the biggest national exercise that the government needs to undertake in the near future. Other than boosting the morale of this segment and paving way for its growth, it will also mean enhanced tax collection, a lot of which can be ploughed back to improve infrastructure and offer welfare to the same workers," Haasan said. "There is also a need to change our outlook towards the vast majority of women who toil their lives away under the status of 'housewife'. Women engaging in housework must be accorded job status. They have little or no savings and a Universal Income Guarantee will give a boost to their savings. Savings always help during any kind of crisis," he added. Haasan even suggested correction in income inequality and poverty alleviation. He added, "COVID-19 has shown us that poverty still remains India's most critical challenge. In a crisis, the rich will take a hit but they will not starve to death. Our leaders must learn to integrate the poor man's life in how they plan the running of the country. Relief measures are mere afterthoughts." In conclusion, Haasan said, "It's time we reinvent the word superpower, India's pipe dream for decades. Let's be a universal thought leader, to put it in parlance a Vishwa-Guru and for all the right reasons." Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates. Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever Full Article
preparedness COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan to Address Unique Challenges for Rural Hospitals and Health Care Systems By www.medindia.net Published On :: Rural hospitals face unique challenges in the fight against COVID-19. However, timely diagnosis and treatment can save millions of lives from deadly coronavirus. Full Article
preparedness Household Preparedness for Disasters Increases from Face-to-face Workshops By www.medindia.net Published On :: Workshops based on the psychology of behavior change and disaster preparedness done in a face-to-face manner can be used to prompt households to take Full Article
preparedness Improving water safety and global prosperity: Preparedness, participation and return By www.oecd.org Published On :: Thu, 28 May 2015 12:40:00 GMT In January of this year I visited the Mexican state of Tabasco– a state crossed by rivers and facing the Gulf of Mexico. The state’s population has doubled over the past 30 years and its economy relies heavily on oil and natural gas resources. It has its challenges as well: unemployment, poverty and a lack of resources. Full Article
preparedness Improving water safety and global prosperity: Preparedness, participation and return By www.oecd.org Published On :: Thu, 28 May 2015 12:40:00 GMT In January of this year I visited the Mexican state of Tabasco– a state crossed by rivers and facing the Gulf of Mexico. The state’s population has doubled over the past 30 years and its economy relies heavily on oil and natural gas resources. It has its challenges as well: unemployment, poverty and a lack of resources. Full Article
preparedness MeitY activates preparedness and response mechanism to prevent "WannaCry" By www.gizbot.com Published On :: Mon, 15 May 2017 18:21:16 +0530 With an aim to prevent the cyber attack "WannaCry", the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said that it has already activated a "preparedness and response mechanism". According to MeitY, it has activated a "preparedness and response mechanism" by Full Article
preparedness School closures and the online preparedness of children during the COVID-19 pandemic [electronic resource] / by Marc Frenette, Kristyn Frank, and Zechuan Deng By darius.uleth.ca Published On :: [Ottawa] : Statistics Canada = Statistique Canada, 2020 Full Article
preparedness COVID-19 pandemic [electronic resource]: school closures and the online preparedness of children / by Marc Frenette, Kristyn Frank and Zechuan Deng By darius.uleth.ca Published On :: [Ottawa] : Statistics Canada = Statistique Canada, 2020 Full Article
preparedness Understanding Flood Preparedness: Flood Memories, Social Vulnerability and Risk Communication in Southern Poland. By library.mit.edu Published On :: Sun, 17 Feb 2019 13:12:16 EST Online Resource Full Article
preparedness Exploring medical and public health preparedness for a nuclear incident: proceedings of a workshop / Leslie Pray, Benjamin Kahn, and Scott Wollek, rapporteurs ; Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies, Board on Health By library.mit.edu Published On :: Sun, 15 Sep 2019 09:28:50 EDT Online Resource Full Article
preparedness Nuclear Emergencies: A Holistic Approach to Preparedness and Response / Georg Steinhauser, Akio Koizumi, Katsumi Shozugawa, editors By library.mit.edu Published On :: Sun, 6 Oct 2019 07:44:56 EDT Online Resource Full Article
preparedness Understanding Flood Preparedness [electronic resource] : Flood Memories, Social Vulnerability and Risk Communication in Southern Poland / by Jarosław Działek, Wojciech Biernacki, Roman Konieczny, Łukasz Fiedeń, Paweł Franczak, Karolina Grzeszna, Karolina By prospero.murdoch.edu.au Published On :: Działek, Jarosław, author Full Article
preparedness School psychologists involvement and perceived preparedness in the provision of suicide-related services : By digital.lib.usf.edu Published On :: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 19:12:02 -0400 Full Article
preparedness What nation can learn from Kerala: Lockdown is not enough. Preparedness, decentralisation, are key By indianexpress.com Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 22:00:02 +0000 Full Article Columns Opinion
preparedness Punjab: Taskforce red flags low testing rate, lack of preparedness to tackle spike in cases By indianexpress.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 18:19:49 +0000 Full Article Chandigarh Cities
