Military Planning for Possible H1N1 Outbreak

[WormGuy]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/28/military.....flu/index.html

 

Military Planning for Possible H1N1 Outbreak

updated 47 minutes ago

 

From Barbara Starr

CNN Pentagon CorrespondentWASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.

 

The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

 

The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command's Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.

 

The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.

 

 

 

It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.

 

Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.

 

As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.

 

Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said.

 

 

 

John

 

 

[Stephanie]

Thanks for posting this John!

[JCK88]

John, thanks for that update. Yikes.

 

I am thinking the reason for this is that the military are under federal orders and it is known that many health care workers will not show up during a pandemic. The government can order the military to show up but it can't order health care workers to show up....

 

and here's a recent study that says one in 6 workers will stay home during a pandemic--but I am thinking the numbers would likely be worse...

http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/hotne...ndemic-flu.html

 

 

 

1 in 6 Public Health Workers Unlikely to Respond in Pandemic Flu Emergency

07/24/2009 Approximately 1 in 6 public health workers said they would not report to work during a pandemic flu emergency regardless of its severity, according to a survey led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The findings are a significant improvement over a 2005 study conducted by the same research team, in which more than 40 percent of public health employees said they were unlikely to report to work during a pandemic emergency. The new study suggests ways for improving the response of the public health workforce. The results are published in the July 24 edition of the journal PLoS ONE.

 

“Employee response is a critical component of preparedness planning, yet it is often overlooked. Our study is an attempt to understand the underlying factors that determine an employee’s willingness to respond in an emergency,” said Daniel Barnett, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Overall, 16 percent of the workers surveyed said they would not report regardless of the severity of the outbreak.”

 

The online survey was conducted among 1,835 public health workers in Minnesota, Ohio and West Virginia from November 2006 to December 2007. The survey analysis was based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), which postulates that willingness to follow instructions in an emergency is based on an individual’s perception of a threat’s validity and belief that the actions taken can be feasibly accomplished and will have a positive impact on the threat. According to the survey, public health workers who were both “concerned” about the threat posed by a pandemic, and who were “confident” that they could fulfill their response roles and that their roles would have a meaningful impact on the situation, were 31 times more likely to respond to work in an emergency than those who perceived the threat low and had low levels of confidence. Workers whose perception of the threat was “low” but who strongly believed in the efficacy of their job were 18 times more likely to say they would respond compared to those in the “low threat/low efficacy” group.

 

“We found belief in the importance of one’s work was strongly associated with a willingness to report to work in an emergency. Our results could help preparedness planners to identify workforce needs and develop strategies for improving worker response,” co-author said Ran Balicer, MD, PhD, MPH, senior lecturer in the Epidemiology Department at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and Joint Editor of the Israeli Ministry of Health Pandemic Preparedness Plan.

 

“This study is important in that it both documents the problem and points the way towards specific interventions—those that increase both concern and confidence—to increase willingness to respond,” said Jonathan Links, PhD, professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences and director of the Public Health Preparedness Programs.

 

Additional authors of “Assessment of Local Public Health Workers’ Willingness to Respond to Pandemic Influenza through Application of the Extended Parallel Process Model” are Carol B. Thompson. J. Douglas Storey, Saad B. Omer, Natalie L. Semon, Steve Bayer, V. Lorraine Cheek, Kerry W. Gateley, Kathryn M. Lanza, Jane A. Norbin, Catherine C. Slemp and Jonathan Links.

 

The research was funded by CDC’s Centers for Public Health Preparedness program, and by CDC’s Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers program

 

 

[ScrubbieLady]

I would consider that maybe some health care workers would not report to work due to the possibility of exposing their families or worrying about care for their family members(perhaps someone with small children)

[ANewMe]

Didn't know if this could be related to this story somewhere down the line

 

Jul 29, 3:44 PM EDT

French general takes over NATO command in Virginia

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_...-07-29-15-44-56