In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

In a new video, Bob Graham and Jim Talent of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, ask: “Why weren’t H1N1 vaccines available for children before school started?” and urge the public to pressure government officials to improve the speed and capacity of U.S. vaccine production.
The two-minute video (below) [...]

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U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) said earlier this month he agreed with the findings of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism that a biological attack on the nation is more likely than a nuclear attack.
Lieberman and ranking member Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a bill that [...]

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The City of New York is looking for at least a few hundred more good men (and women) to be “Fake Patients” in a “Point of Dispensing (POD) Emergency Response Exercise” on Saturday afternoon. Officials say the drill will help in the planning for both a possible anthrax attack as well as the possible return [...]

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The influential University of Pittsburgh Center for Biosecurity has just released a series of “Biosecurity Memos to the Obama Administration” with “strategic recommendations regarding priorities for U.S. biosecurity as well as an array of specific program recommendations.”
One of the papers is titled, ”Expanding The Public’s Role In Health Emergency Policy”, written by Monica Schoch-Spana, Brooke Courtney and Ann Norwood. It offers [...]

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Margaret Hamburg, who President Obama nominated Commissioner of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday, is the Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Trust For America’s Health (TFAH), a leading nonpartisan public-health advocacy organization. Late last year, TFAH, along with the Robert Wood Johnson, released their sixth annual report, Ready or Not? 2008: Protecting the Public’s Health [...]

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I am happy to report that a helpful weekly email resource is going daily beginning this Monday. The Biosecurity Briefing, published by the Baltimore-based Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is being expanded. I have found the weekly edition useful in following developments on biosecurity and other threats so I look forward [...]

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Stanford University Business School Professor Lawrence M. Wein has an interesting Op-Ed article, “Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Anthrax…,” in today’s New York Times in which he supports the use of Postal Service mail carriers to deliver prophylactic antibiotics to the public in the event of an anthrax attack. In the piece (registration may be required), Wein lays out the [...]

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I attended a fascinating workshop in March held by the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events titled “Dispensing Medical Countermeasures for Public Health Emergencies.” The report on the workshop was released today. It can be ordered through the National Academies Press, and the Executive Summary is available for free download on [...]

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The suicide of U.S. Army scientist Bruce E. Ivins may finally solve the ‘Anthrax Letters’ case. Almost seven years ago, letters with anthrax powder began appearing across the country and eventually resulted in the deaths of five people. One of those deaths came very close to home for me and my family. And it turned out [...]

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