Archive for November, 2008

Great American Shakeout Follow-up

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

I’d almost forgotten about the Great Southern California Shakeout (the earthquake drill that happened November 13, 2008) until the USGS very helpfully sent me a link to the “Corecast” for the “Lessons Learned” from the largest-ever earthquake scenario exercise.

(Download Secretary Kempthorne and Mark Myers Share Thoughts on ShakeOut.)

“Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and USGS Director Mark Myers reflect on the successes of The Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake preparedness drill in U.S. history.”

Perhaps the best overview of the outcomes is available on this page, from Caltech.  Scenario results, research studies and follow-on research are described and linked here.”Shakemaps”like the one below and scenario video are available here.

Finally, the innovative (and unexpected) collaboration with the Art Center College of Design resulted in the production of this YouTube video. Highly effective, without dropping into the realm of fear-mongering. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/opXZY1zZ8xk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Posted in Earthquakes, Emergency Communications, Research Links, government information | No Comments »

Michael Chertoff on the Government’s Role in Managing Risk

Friday, November 21st, 2008

I’ve mentioned before that I find the most interesting things when I read more broadly outside of my field. Knowledge@Wharton, for instance, the online business journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. One of the articles in today’s issue is a summary of a Leadership Lecture given by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff describing the role of the government in managing risk.

“What do the global financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terrorist attacks have in common? All are examples of how not to manage risk, according to America’s top risk-management official, Homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff.

Risk management “lies at the core” of his department’s mission, Chertoff said at a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture in which he addressed areas where regulation — in moderation — can reduce risk in the marketplace. Managing risk was the first objective he saw before him when he was sworn in almost four years ago, Chertoff said, and it remains “maybe the fundamental social problem that we face in the 21st century.”

“Our mission is very broad — it covers everything from preventing and reducing our vulnerability to terrorist attacks; to protecting and reducing the vulnerabilities of our infrastructure, including our cyber-infrastructure, and then mitigating the consequences of disasters by strengthening our preparedness and response.”

Looking back at the 9/11 attacks and various natural disasters during his soon-to-conclude tenure, “or even the current financial crisis, it becomes very clear that we have not always handled risk properly,” Chertoff acknowledged.”

The article itself is intersting, but I found the “Additional Reading” at the end of the article really interesting:

Hurricane Katrina: Important Policy Questions Amid the Devastation and Recovery
Knowledge@Wharton

A Month after Katrina: Lessons from Leadership Failures
Knowledge@Wharton

The Financial Risks of Terrorism: Balancing Public and Private Roles
Knowledge@Wharton

Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk
Knowledge@Wharton

An email subscription is free and open to anyone, at https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/signup.cfm.

 

Posted in government information | No Comments »

Galveston National Laboratory – new National Biocontainment Lab opens

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Having seen actual snow falling as I was on my way in to work this morning (yes, in November, and yes, I live in Richmond!), I’m tempted to just link to the VDEM’s “Get Ready Now for Winter Weather” news release. But instead, I’m going to highlight a new Galveston National Laboratory, the University of Texas Medical Branch.

The arrival of Hurricane Ike in mid-September, just after the facility was “substantially” completed, was an early test of the safety of the structure, but there was no damage, and November 11, 2008 saw the official opening ceremony. Coming on the heels of a GAO report on the lack of security in several of the other BSL-4 laboratories, this was an important, if unanticipated, test.

Within this state-of-the-art facility, an extraordinary group of scientists are engaged in efforts to translate research ideas into products aimed at controlling emerging infectious diseases and defending our society against bioterrorism. The GNL has been designed to serve as a national resource, and will complement and enhance UTMB’s decades of prominence in biomedical research – as well as provide a world renowned resource for training researchers in infectious diseases.

As one of two National Biocontainment Laboratories constructed with funding awarded in October 2003 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health (NIAID/NIH), the GNL provides much needed research space and specialized research capabilities to develop therapies, vaccines, and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases such as SARS, West Nile encephalitis and avian influenza – as well as for microbes that might be employed by terrorists. Products likely to emerge from research and investigations within the GNL include novel diagnostic assays, improved therapeutics and treatment models, and preventative measures such as vaccines.

Interesting content includes the Video Tour and Timeline (which proves that they are no newcomer to the field), as well as an assortment of links relating to bioterrorism, infectious disease, and other public health issues.

Posted in Bioterrorism, Pandemic, Research Links | No Comments »

Using Google for the Greater Good

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Google has a number of applications, such as Google Docs, that are being put to creative and innovative uses.  In the field of public health, for instance, Google Flu Trends uses aggregated search data, combined with IP addresses, to track flu outbreaks.

Annual U.S. Flu Activity - Mid Atlantic

They claim that there is a strong correlation between searching and disease outbreak (although they do recognize that not everyone who searches for “flu symptoms” might be sick – you might, for example, just be writing a paper for your ESM class), and that their data can indicate an outbreak as soon as two weeks before the CDC or another indicator system. (The CDC relies largely on doctor reports that are aggregated by the CDC and state health departments.) Another benefit is the near-instant reporting of results, allowing researchers to see what is happening right now.

A Flash-based map of the U.S. allows you to view flu trends for this year, broken down by state. As a researcher, you can download their raw data  in a CSV-format. The FAQ for the Google Flu Trends answers questions about flu statistics in general and Google Trends in particular, including privacy questions related to this service.

Posted in Pandemic, Research Links | No Comments »

Trust for America’s Health

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

I discovered this organization thanks to a  pointer from the HSDL to their October 2008 report entitled, “Germs Go Global: Why Emerging Infectious Diseases Are a Threat to America.” Having just participated in a discussion group on the ethics and biology of childhood immunizations,* this caught my eye.

“From anthrax to asthma, from chemical terrorism to cancer, America is facing a crisis of epidemics.

As a nation, we are stuck in a “disease du jour” mentality, which means we lose sight of the bigger picture: building a public health defense that is strong enough to cover us from all points of attack – whether the threats are from a bioterrorist or Mother Nature.

By focusing on PREVENTION, PROTECTION, and COMMUNITIES, TFAH is leading the fight to make disease prevention a national priority, from Capitol Hill to Main Street. We know what works. Now we need to build the resolve to get it done.”

Turns out, the non-profit, non-partisan Trust for America’s Health publishes a lot of reports and statistics that would be of interest to those interested in public health and emergency preparedness. Their reports cover topics as diverse as the obesity crisis in America (“F as in Fat“) and the safety of America’s food supply (“Fixing Food Safety“). But the real strength of this site is the statistics. I found out that the Commonwealth of Virginia scored a perfect “10″ on the “Ready or Not 2007 Emergency Preparedness Indicators”, and the state data can be viewed either by state or by topic (Pandemic Flu, Infectious Diseases, Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness among others).

The Advocacy and Initiatives pages give a good view of who the Trust is, and what they are working on. Finally, the Resource Library brings together a collection of resources, both those published by the Trust and outside resources related to the different focus topics.

*Personal opinion warning – I came away from the discussion with the realization that certain populations in America are now at high-risk for some very scary diseases due to their stand on this issue and increased globalization, and we have the luxury of being ignorant of the ravages of diseases like polio because they have essentially been eradicated – end personal opinion.

Posted in Bioterrorism, Pandemic, Research Links, Resources, government information | No Comments »

Quake Catcher Network

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

From Stanford University and the University of California – Riverside, an intriguing example of “distributed computing” being used to provide evidence of earthquakes around the globe. Download the free software and become part of the Quake Catcher Network.

Quake Catcher Network Map

The Quake-Catcher Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers.

With your help, the Quake-Catcher Network can provide better understanding of earthquakes, give early warning to schools, emergency response systems, and others. The Quake-Catcher Network also provides educational software designed to help teach about earthquakes and earthquake hazards.

The Quake Catcher Network uses the built-in movement sensor (accelerometers) in many laptops to ‘read’ seismic events. By combining the results of many sensors, the overall size and time of the quake event can be read. (An associated initiative provides USB accelerometers for desktop computers.) The researchers are also interested in using this initiative to foster learning in the K-12 environment, and have developed a version of the software and a set of lesson plans specifically for school settings.

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