In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Almost six in ten Americans (59%) believe it is very or somewhat likely that there will be widespread cases of Influenza A (H1N1) with people getting very sick this coming fall or winter, according to a new poll released today by the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. The full survey [...]

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I am in Broomfield, Colorado outside Denver at the “Natural Hazards & Applications Workshop” which is organized by the University of Colorado’s famed Natural Hazards Center. The workshop, now in its 34th year, is “designed to bring hazards researchers and practitioners from many disciplines together for face-to-face discussions on issues and trends that affect how [...]

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As part of the Obama Administration’s new public service initiative, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the  Citizen Corps have partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service to create a Community Preparedness Toolkit. It is one of a series of Toolkits that can be found on Serve.gov, the nation’s new online resource for finding volunteer [...]

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The National Commission on Children and Disasters recently approved an initial set of recommendations in its interim report to President Obama and Congress. The final report, due in October, will reflect an assessment of persistent gaps in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery for children and include policy suggestions to fill the gaps. The panel’s preliminary recommendations [...]

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I had the opportunity to attend Thursday’s U.S. H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit held at the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. The all-day event was organized by the Obama Administration to focus attention on preparation for and response to a possible more serious H1N1 outbreak in the Fall. Five hundred [...]

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I am not an iPhone user so I will not be able to take advantage of the emergency apps highlighted in a very useful (for iPhone users) post by Ben Parr of Mashable, “Seven iPhone Apps That Can Save Your Life”. Parr writes:
“What can’t iPhone applications do? There are apps for almost every interest and [...]

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In a post on the Software Advice blog, “Twitter Growing Virally But Can It Stop Viruses?”, Chris Thoman argues that Twitter could play a significant role in epidemiology. He writes:
The combination of Twitter and epidemiology presents an interesting opportunity: What if doctors twittered about symptoms they observed and diagnoses they made? What if that information [...]

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With a lot of people visiting New York this summer, I thought I would highlight a fun and interesting spot I recently went with my family, which involves disaster-related themes. The Sony Wonder Technology Lab is located in midtown Manhattan, and it offers kids and their parents a chance to take part in a simulated television [...]

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An Institute of Medicine panel has released a report saying that while a home-made nuclear bomb detonated in U.S. city would likely kill hundreds of thousands of people, there are actually things that can be done to increase the survivability for many others. That is, the committee argues, if the public is informed of those [...]

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I am in Bethesda, Maryland to cover the “H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit” which will take place Thursday at the National Institutes of Health. The schedule of speakers is here. I will be writing about the Summit on the blog. But if you want to follow the proceedings contemporaneously you can do so on the web [...]

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