Bioterrorism and Political/Economic Support for Health Departments
Introduction
Though the terrorist attacks of 9/11 shook the United States from some of its complacency, 11 years later, our public health system and the public/private health departments of the United States are still incapable of coping with a major bioterrorist attack. Our health care system was not designed to deal with bioterrorism, our medical personnel are not trained or experienced enough to deal with bioterrorism and we have not devoted enough political muscle and money to redesigning, re-educating and restructuring so the health departments can effectively deal with this very real menace. The solution is the devotion of all those assets to a new, empowered, well-funded, coordinated health departments comprising a highly effective public health system. The Fundamental Problem with our Response to Bioterrorism is not Inadequate Legal Authority. It is that Health Departments do not have Adequate Political and Economic Support. Addressing the proposed Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA) in 2003, the Louisiana State University Law Center concluded that the real problem in addressing bioterrorism is that our public health system is incapable of adequately responding to a bioterrorism threat, just as it is incapable of adequately responding to other public health threats (LSU Program in Law, Science and Public Health, 2003). The LSU Law Center's concern is apparently shared by
The U.S. Public Health system is still growing, building up on its existing structure, improving and has created acts and organizations which still exist today. During its time, it has helped numerous people such as seamen in its earlier days to the health checks at Ellis Island and to more recent acts such as vaccines and controlling infectious diseases. But even with those contributions and the countless lives saved, it also has many weaknesses due to federal and state level governments. In order for the Public Health service to flourish and gain more momentum, it must keep its strengths and build upon them as times change but in order for that to occur it also must address the numerous weakness.
The first major bioterror event in the United States--the anthrax attacks in October 2001--was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.
In a response to the polio outbreak of 1916, Dr. Haven Emerson, the Health Commissioner for New York City, stated: “we have learned little that is new about the disease, but much that is old about ourselves.” The meaning of this has to do with the ideology that no matter the era, people have a common response to the outbreak of contagious disease. Human nature supplies us as humans with a common reaction to dealing with disease, and it is one that can be seen during the Black Death, polio epidemics, and ebola epidemics, as well as many other epidemics. These responses can be both positive and negative, and often have to do with containment of the disease, preventative measures - which may or may not be effective; and scapegoating. Although there may be individualized responses for each of these diseases, the way in which the health-care officers and the public handle the outbreak of disease generally follows the same pattern overall.
“Bioterrorism remains a major threat for the United States despite more than $65 billion spent on protecting the country from myriad dangers, the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center said in its latest report Wednesday. The center's Bio-Response Report Card evaluated U.S. preparedness for countering threats from bioterrorism and found the country remains vulnerable to multiple threats and "largely unprepared for a large-scale bioterrorist attack."”(UPI.com, 2011). There have been over a dozen leading U.S. bio-defense experts that have taken part in figuring out where we are exactly as a county and what the effects of a terroristic attack
Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same” ("Mission, role and pledge| about | CDC," n.d.). The CDC were in the rights of the law to apprehend, detain, and quarantine individuals to prevent introduction, transmission, or spread disease by order of Executive Order No. 13295 of The Public Health and Welfare regulations (U.S.C. title 42 - THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, n.d., p. xx). The Public Health and Welfare regulations was created exactly for this type of situation, so the CDC wouldn’t have to deal with all kind of red tape when they are trying to keep the general public safe from a serious
In 1983, a disease known as CNSB-1 was spotted in South America. By 1985 the disease has traveled to north america by airplane. When 1990 came around, every major city has been affected. Quarantine zones were established in the poorest parts or town. The disease was cured in 1995 but it still claimed the lives of 49,920,000 people in america. Progress had slowed down to a crawl and the economy was left in shambles after the U.S government put all of it’s resources in destroying CNSB-1 before it destroyed their nation. 1998 comes along and the quarantine zones are still around, only now filled with a new type or sickness.Terrorist gangs inhabit them and live by randomly raiding surrounding communities. For those who live in such areas, the only
Beginning in the early 1990’s, a series of governmental actions against biological warfare and bioterrorism were instituted, including the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, and the Defense Authorization Act. These acts were meant to either dissuade bioterrorists or boost the government’s power in defensive biological warfare research (Lanthrop). In April of 2000, the CDC published a guide, Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response, which covered “planning, detection and surveillance, laboratory analysis, emergency response, and communications” (“CDC”). The APIC and CDC have co-written a guide for hospitals who come into contact with biological agents to follow (“CDC”). To sum up these guidebooks, it is important to look out for the following incidences: an irregular rapid increase in disease occurrences, an epidemic curve, an unusual pattern or time for a disease to thrive, clusters of patients from the same area, large numbers of fatal cases, simultaneous reports of animal deaths (Lanthrop).
been created and tasked with thinking ahead to the next pandemic threat to the great state of
Fifty-five percent of state public health organizations are structured as free-standing or independent departments within state government and forty-five percent are located within the umbrella such as the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Umbrella organizations are responsible for various types of health and public health services, such as Medicaid, public assistance, state mental health services, and long-term care. Public health services are distributed on a district or local level through several organizational structures. These organizational structures have an impact on the distribution of public health services (The Structure and Organization, 2017). Furthermore, all states must establish clear organizational strategies for public health accountability. States must have a department of health that assembles all primary health-related functions within a competent administration. The department must focus on disease control and health promotion, environmental responsibilities, and health regulations for occupations. Also, the federal government should determine structures or systematic changes that would be relevant to improve the federal government ability to meet the objectives of public health leadership. State and local agencies must strengthen environmental
Author Rebecca Katz, a Professor at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, focuses on protecting our health throughout the world when “targeting environmental disasters and preventing diseases.” She mentions the tragedy of 9/11. When 9/11 happened so many hearts were broken, so many lives were taken and the world was just at a complete scare. United States had to take action and protocol to protect the citizens. In order to keep our nation safe, Public Health Preparedness needs and should be followed as a process. I say that because just not the United States but the world needs to know what to do and follow when there are disasters, tragedies’ whether they are little or big. Katz mention, “Citizens will
Preventing the spread of Ebola is a public goal. The government has always had the power to protect. The Federal Rules and enforcement of the United States Constitution are always going to be supreme law (Alexander p. 11) The term “police power” is defined as “the power of the government to protect the health, safety, welfare, and morals of its citizens” (Alexander p.20). The Tenth amendment of the US Constitution reserves to the states “ the powers not delegated to the federal government” (Zellers Week 4 lecture). When Courts rule on an issue related to public welfare, courts have a minimum standard to meet based on the Constitution. The States can go above this minimum standard that has been set (Alexander p 26). In the case of quarantine each state enacts their “police power” to protect the citizens and protocols that should be followed. If the state chooses to go above the minimum standard there is no rule that says that this cannot happen. As long as the state passes a law that doesn’t violate the US Constitution then their protocol would be justified (Alexander p
The National Response Framework is a guide designed to assist local, State, and Federal governments in developing functional capabilities and identifying resources based on hazard identification and risk assessment. It outlines the operating structure and identifies key roles and responsibilities. It established a framework to identify capabilities based on resources and the current situation no matter the size or scale. It integrates organizational structures and standardizes how the Nation at all levels plans to react to incidents. The suspected terrorist attack will have health, economic, social, environment and political long-term effects for my community. This is why it is essential that local government’s
The Bioterrorisk simulation, which is developed by the Illinois Public Health Prepared-ness Center, is a case based mini course. The bioterrorism events of 9/11 and Anthrax epidemic in the United States have alarmed the nation’s capability to respond to the bioterrorism attacks. The Public Health role in bioterrorism preparedness and response is to plan and organize the medical and public health first response personnel to identify and investigate any disease outbreaks by using the surveillance systems, laboratory services and using the similar disease epidemic data available in
Imagine the United States fifteen years from now, 2030 an Ebola outbreak has accord. Infection spreading every second, cities all over America growing anxious not knowing how to react to such a deadly disease. Humans trying to find a safe place to shelter their family frustrated with the little supplies of food and water left to help them surviver for at least the next few days, but knowing they can’t do anything because the deadly virus is everywhere. Hospitals all over America full of infected patients; chaos happening all around us and we will not be able to do anything because it will simply be too late. Americans often don’t realize what’s happening amongst them, the danger of bioterror a risk that threatens all humanity, they would rather concern themselves with miner issues that don’t appose such threats as those of bioterrorism, and even if they did few will be the ones to act on it. It’s not until the issue has accord that they realize they should had
The Department of Homeland Security released the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review on June 18, 2014 as required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and its amendments. This review outlined the current state of preparedness, as well as the future areas of concentration. It also determined six strategic challenges facing the nation: terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns as a whole; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards. The basic building block of emergency management in the U.S. is the local community. Each step begins here. Threat assessments are completed on the local level. Planning, mitigation, and response are all responsibilities of the local community to support the state and Federal practice using the guidance provided by both.