The Ready or Not report series provides an annual assessment of states’ levels of readiness to respond to public health emergencies. It recommends policy actions to ensure that everyone’s health is protected during such events. This 2021 edition tiers states into three performance categories – high, middle, and low – and includes action steps states should take to improve their readiness while battling COVID-19 and for the next health emergency.
The Biden-Harris Administration released the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance. This interim guidance has been issued to convey President Biden’s vision for how America will engage with the world, and to provide guidance for departments and agencies to align their actions as the Administration begins work on a National Security Strategy.
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense’s new report, The Apollo Program for Biodefense: Winning the Race Against Biological Threats details an ambitious program to develop and deploy the technologies needed to defend against all biological threats, empower public health, and prevent pandemics. The Commission argues if the United States acts now, this Apollo Program could effectively end the era of pandemic threats by 2030.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Convergence Action Guide describes the complex threat environment created by increasingly interconnected cyber-physical systems, and the impacts that this interconnectivity has on an organization’s cybersecurity and physical security functions. It also provides information that organizations can consider to adopt a holistic cyber-physical security approach through a flexible framework.
SAFECOM and the National Council of Statewide Interoperability Coordinators Next Generation 911 working group, with support from Cybersercurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), have released a new Geographic Information System (GIS) Lifecycle Best Practices Guide to provide public safety administrators, managers, and officials with best practices and resources for implementing geographic information systems.
The 2020 National Preparedness Report provides an overview of the risks that communities face, how vulnerabilities present in those communities drive those risks, and how risk management principles can be employed to manage those risks. The report describes the capabilities needed to manage those risks and how close communities are to meeting target goals. Finally, the report highlights four critical considerations that underscore the complexity of managing the nation’s risks and that offer a path forward for emergency management across the nation.
This report, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, includes the “National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care: Best Practice Toolkit” and related papers on crisis services. The toolkit offers relevant clinical and health services research, review of top national program practices, and replicable approaches that support best practice implementation. The related papers address key issues relevant to crisis services, homelessness, technology advances, substance use, legal issues impacting crisis services, financing crisis care, diverse populations, children and adolescents, rural and frontier areas, and the role of law enforcement.
The forensic chemical attribution process seeks to trace chemical agents used in attacks. Investigators take a sample of the agent from a victim or site, and then analyze its physical and chemical properties. The data can be used to identify a “chemical fingerprint,” which could provide information to investigators about how the agent was made.
While research suggests that women may have greater awareness of hazards in their area, it also puts forward that women are less likely than men to be prepared for disasters. Additionally, studies have found women to be more likely to experience distress after a disaster, including an increased likelihood of developing posttraumatic stress disorder. This bulletin reviews research on how women experience disasters.
In a recently released special focus report, “Diagnostics for Biodefense – Flying Blind With No Plan to Land,” the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense provides an approach that would ensure the United States can rapidly develop innovative point-of-care and point-of-need diagnostic tests for COVID-19 and other novel, emerging, and reemerging infectious diseases when they occur.
