Policy week 9 notes (1)
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San Jose State University *
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103
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Health Science
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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Week 9 Reaction Notes
This week we had to read chapter 13 of the textbook. In the text, we learned about the
role of government in preparedness in case of public health emergencies. Emergency
preparedness is the “ability to prevent, prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from
health emergencies.” Some public health emergencies are infectious disease outbreaks, natural
disasters, illnesses due to a chemical or nuclear attack or terrorism, and more. Basically, it is
anything that would put the general public’s health at risk of the issue trying to be handled. The
role of public health in these emergencies is to find and lead a plan that is effective in
minimizing morbidity and mortality, they are responsible for the vulnerable communities as well.
They need to be in communication with healthcare systems such as hospitals, clinics, care
facilities, and more.
Programs such as the Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Hospital Preparedness
program, and the Incident Command System, were created to help with the funding and control
of the damage from a disaster or emergency.
One interesting thing was looking at the graphs for the funding for preparing for
emergencies or disasters. It is seen that there seems to be a downward trend in the funding of
Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Hospital preparedness programs. There is a more
obvious negative trend in the HPP graph. One statement that I found interesting was how
Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and the District of Columbia were at the highest risk of a
terrorist attack so their funding has to be separate from the state's original funding.
Regarding the role of state and local government in these cases, they are in charge of
assessing the jurisdictional hazards and vulnerabilities to determine plans on how to avoid the
threats. One part that I found interesting was how these plans are never finalized. They are
flexible and changing as a part of the response to the threat. This was able to be seen during the
COVID-19 pandemic with the mandate of face masks and isolation when an individual caught
COVID-19. I was always confused about what the new rules were when someone caught the
virus and how long they needed to quarantine because the number of days needed kept changing.
The mask mandate soon became optional and I was confused about this too in the beginning
because I thought that the virus was still a major issue within our country. But reading about this
chapter made me realize that these plans need to be flexible and to be changed as time
progresses.
Another statement that I found interesting was that local jurisdictions, states, and the
federal government have the authority to issue isolations and quarantines. Meaning Public Health
has to go through the government if they see the population's health is at risk, sometimes causing
controversies.
There is also legal preparedness where organizations and practitioners are knowledgeable
about the legal authorities when it comes to practices within public health. They know how to
deal with and act when their population is under the threat of an emergency or risk. They need to
be able to act based on regulations and laws that are already implemented.
Word Count: 532
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