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 large that the global flu pandemic is not yet dead, only sleeping.
Thanks to major improvements in military medical care, even on the battlefield itself, the U.S. combat KIA (killed in action) casualty rate has declined dramatically for more than half a century. Question: Could the same medical skills, training, and equipment be used to reduce the KIA rate of U.S. police and other law-enforcement personnel? The obvious answer is an unqualified "Yes!" But it will take time, patience, and determination.
Baltimore knows, and so do the great states of Oregon and Pennsylvania, that the first requirement in preparedness training is having the right type of equipment - in the quantities needed to meet all possible contingencies. The "other" first requirement is to ensure that all users of that equipment are well trained, as frequently as possible - and, again, to meet all possible contingencies.
The goal is clear: to protect the U.S. homeland from CBRN attacks today, tomorrow, and far into the future. But the race - against an implacable enemy - is endless, there are numerous gaps and pitfalls blocking the way forward, and the winner may not necessarily be the runner who is the best trained and equipped but the one who is the most determined.
Nine years later, and nothing has changed! Well, that is not exactly true. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is alive and, although not always moving forward at flank speed, has made considerable progress in several ways. Many relatively new programs should be expanded and upgraded, though, particularly those involving state and local jurisdictions - and the private sector.
The Department of Homeland Security's Customs & Border Protection branch has several immensely important responsibilities. There is no other challenge, though, quite so daunting as its primary duty of keeping nuclear weapons and/or devices from entering any of the more than 300 U.S. ports of entry from overseas. Making that task even more difficult, unfortunately, are a number of major cost, technological, and bureaucratic complications.
Personal Protective Equipment, particularly and specifically including PPE clothing, provides excellent but not 100 percent guaranteed safety against the CBRNE weapons and devices that are the terrorists' weapons of choice in today's increasingly dangerous world. But using PPE properly and effectively takes both time and training, and can add significantly to the "cost of doing business."
There are still many important lessons to be learned from the massive "Looking Glass" tabletop exercise carried out almost three years ago just a dirty-bomb's throw from downtown New York City. Here is a quick and easy primer on some of the most important of those lessons.
by Christopher Wrenn, Senior Director, Sales & Marketing, Environics USA -
This is the first of a four-part series on Chemical Detection and Decontamination for Multiple Applications. In response to releases of CWA, there may not be one technology or one "answer" that is correct. The responder must take into account all of the clues to determine the presence or absence of CWAs in order to take appropriate action.
The 2009 inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American commander in chief, was the biggest - and, of course, best publicized - national "special event" on the long and growing list of emergency-management best-case/worst-case scenarios. Fortunately, most of the lessons learned two years ago involved relatively minor errors and omissions.
