In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

As has been discussed on the blog a couple of times this summer, the H1N1 pandemic contingency plans for workplaces, particularly small businesses, continue to be a significant issue. Unlike schools, there is no central managerial authority to make and implement policies; guidelines have to be created and implemented on a firm by firm basis. It will [...]

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President Obama has signed a proclamation declaring the H1N1 flu a “national emergency,” according to Reuters:
The proclamation, which Obama signed Friday night, will make it easier for U.S. medical facilities to handle a surge in flu patients by allowing the waiver of some requirements of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health insurance programs as needed, [...]

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In a proclamation declaring September as National Preparedness Month (NPM), President Obama declares that preparedness is “a top priority” of his Administration and emphasizes a “more resilient nation” as “our goal”. The statement begins:
“Preparedness is an essential element of a resilient and secure Nation. My Administration has made preparedness a top priority, and we are [...]

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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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During a visit to FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center on Friday, President Obama said that preparing for hurricanes and other disasters was a “personal responsibility” and a responsibility of citizenship. According to the President:
“True preparedness means having federal and state and local governments all coordinating effectively, and as you just heard, one of the most important [...]

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I recently had the opportunity to interview Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, on the subject of citizen preparedness. Speaking in his Capitol Hill office, Thompson told me that he believes there needs to be more emphasis on public readiness and engagement in the U.S. 
He says he hopes President Obama will [...]

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The U.S Senate yesterday passed the “Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act”, which would significantly raise the number of Americans who can participate in national service programs, including those to help prepare for and respond to disasters. The legislation calls for tripling the size of the AmeriCorps to 750,000 and expanding incentives for students and seniors to give [...]

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That’s the provocative question asked by the headline of an ABCNews.com article written by Leonard Marcus, Isaac Ashkenazi, and Barry Dorn from Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative with advice for the new Administration. The piece came out in December when this blog was on hiatus but I wanted to post it because the authors point out the [...]

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In his weekly radio/video address today, President Obama addressed the issue of food safety and announced the nomination of Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg as the Commissioner of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Hamburg is a former Health Commissioner of New York City and is known as an expert in bioterrorism. She is currently Senior Scientist at [...]

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I wanted to bring to your attention a terrific article in The Huffington Post, “Applying The ‘Obama Model’ For Homeland Security,” by Arnold Bogis from Harvard University’s Belfer Center.
Bogis argues that the bottom-up, community-driven organizational approach of the President during the recent campaign (and in some of his previous work in Chicago) can — and should be — [...]

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