government information | ESM Research

Archive for the ‘government information’ Category

Swine Flu meta-pages

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Between last year’s energy crisis, the bad economic news and the Tri-Delts walking into the library in their hippy-chick summer dresses, it’s like we’re back to the 70′s. And now, swine flu…

Dr. Joe Bresee, CDC Influenza Division

Several librarians have put together ‘meta’ pages of resources relating to the outbreak (not yet an official pandemic or even an epidemic), so I won’t try to re-invent the wheel.

Chris Childs, at the University of Iowa’s Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, has put together a Libguide page of Swine Flu information. (This is the type of guide we’ll be moving to for our subject research guides over the summer, so if you are a user of my ESM Research Guide, this is what you’ll see in the fall. Good stuff.)

The National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes for Health run Medline, a comprehensive public health database. The Swine Flu page here has a lot of CDC information, but also links to refereed (peer-reviewed) articles from the Pubmed database. They have also compiled a “Specialized Information Services” page on the environmental health and toxicology aspects of the flu.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

This report, from a commercial investment research analysis company, compares this outbreak to SARS and other influenza outbreaks, and focuses on the [possible] economic effects of this particular flu.

Finally, I’ve referenced this site before, so I’ll reference it again: the CDC has a great “Pandemic Influenza” site that links to many resources for planning for and dealing with an outbreak.

Stay well out there. Let’s keep this in the category of “live drill” rather than “real thing”. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, stay home if you are sick…

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

Earthquake “Meta-”post

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

(One more, and then I’ll move on. I promise…)

The USGS website is a gift that keeps on giving as far as historic information on earthquakes is concerned. Need a list (with descriptions) of the earthquakes which caused 1000 or more deaths since 1900? Here you are. What about US National Seismic Hazard Maps (so people can keep arguing about whether or not earthquakes are predictable events)? Here, along with Seismic Design Values for Buildings, a Java-based calculator which can provide Hazard Curves, design parameters from ASCE and international building codes, and “uniform hazard response spectra”. How about an estimate of the number of people and the names of cities exposed to severe shaking following significant earthquakes worldwide? Yup, that’s here too, under the “PAGER – Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response” heading. Because I’m working on a loaner computer, I can’t look at the Google Earth tools, but I’ve bookmarked them for later because so many of them look interesting. Finally, a page of preparedness-related website links gives great resources for students in our ESM/Disaster Science program, including the LA City Fire Department Earthquake Preparedness Handbook, the NEHRP (the Federal Government’s earthquake risk reduction program), and others.

Posted in Earthquakes, Resources, government information | No Comments »

New FEMA Director Named

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

I know I’m a bit behind, but with the changeover in administrations in Washington comes a change over at FEMA.

Craig Fugate

Craig Fugate, formerly Director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management (a post he held for 8 years), has been named to head FEMA, with Jason R. McNamara coming on as his Chief of Staff. McNamara was formerly Director of Emergency Management at Dewberry, one of FEMA’s largest contractors.

Here’s a video of Fugate at work in his previous job. This is a great example of a fully-stocked “Media Center” with public service announcements, lessons learned, and even sessions with school children available in video format, coupled with copies of disaster plan materials: emergency checklists, disaster supply lists and even links to help Florida businesses create business plans.

Posted in Emergency Communications, Resources, Weather Emergencies, government information | No Comments »

PandemicFlu.gov

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Pandemic flu hasn’t made the news much this winter (although the stock market seems to have caught a bad case of something), but the CDC has collected everything you might ever be interested in on the topic, and put it together here.

Pandemic Influenza cases around the world, according to the WHO.

(Image courtesy of Fish & Wildlife Service)

Want to know how many human cases of Avian Flu have been reported this year? 12 cases, 4 deaths as of 11 Feb. Can you define Avian Flu, and describe how it differs from seasonal and pandemic flu? You’ll find the answer here. Need planning checklists? Check. In addition to tremendous amounts of scientific information (links to research activities are here), there is a huge amount of information on the epidemic influenza outbreak of 1918, including a “storybook“with personal narratives (including some video) and a link to the Department of Health and Human Services’ web history entitled The Great Pandemic: The United States in 1918-1919.

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

Alaskan Volcano Watch

Monday, February 9th, 2009

I have a six-year old son who is more than interested in any type of weather event – we use the term “obsessed”, and we don’t use it lightly. Second only to tornadoes in his world are volcanoes, and he is begging us to take him to Hawaii so he can see real lava flow.

Cleveland Volcano, Alaska

As much as we would love to take him to Hawaii, that’s not a cheap trip, so in the meantime I’ve discovered the USGS “Alaska Volcano Observatory” website, with live webcams aimed at the major volcanoes in Alaska. In addition to the beautiful imagery (both still and video), the site is packed with research, information, and even hazards summaries. (Be sure to check the sunrise indicator on the webcam video – although it’s mid-morning here in Virginia, the sun won’t be up at the Redoubt volcano until 9:30 AKST. Which is just about the time our budding weatherman gets home from school…)

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

Report on States’ Pandemic Preparedness

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

With the change of administrations in Washington, it seems like a good time to do some evaluation. This report, released this month, gives an assessment of the operating plans the 50 states (as well as DC and the five U.S. Territories) have put into place in case of pandemic influenza.

Flu Virus

While the report breaks out how each state rates in every different assessed area, there are some caveats:

The results of this assessment process provide a broad-brush picture of comparative strengths and weaknesses across the various facets of pandemic preparedness. However, readers should be mindful of two caveats. First, the findings are the product of reviews of documents rather than site visits or other direct observations of performance. The actual degree of readiness for any given State and any given Operating Objective therefore may be better or worse than what the submitted documents portray. Second, preparedness is dynamic rather than static. The actual degree of readiness therefore may have improved or deteriorated between the time any given State submitted its planning information and now.

Makes you thankful that this year has been a “Moderate” one for flu across most of the country. (See the post about Google Flu Trends for an interesting comparison of this year to past ones.) Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!

Posted in Pandemic, government information | No Comments »

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 »

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 »

RAND Report on Mass Antibiotic Dispensing

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Coming as it did right on the heels of my last post, I had to point this out:

RAND Corporation

RAND Corporation has published an impressive (133 page .pdf) Technical Report on “Recommended Infrastructure Standards for Mass Antibiotic Dispensing.”

“This document presents a set of recommended standards for mass antibiotic dispensing that focus on the “points of dispensing” (or PODs, locations where the members of the public would go to receive life-saving antibiotics or other medical countermeasures during a large-scale public health emergency). Specifically, the standards address (1) the number and location of PODs, (2) internal POD operations, (3) POD staffing, and (4) POD security. This document will be of interest to policymakers and practitioners involved in public health emergency preparedness at all levels of government.
The recommended standards are based on available empirical evidence, computer models, and the experience and consensus of expert practitioners. Given the weakness of existing evidence and tools, as well as the occasional difficulty in developing expert consensus, this report offers alternate versions of some standards. In these instances, policymakers must use their judgment in selecting among the alternatives.”

Among other tools, the report includes a sample spreadsheet for population estimates, a checklist of legal issues and a number of tables and graphs. The report itself, while not an easy read, is well-written enough to be comprehensible to a layperson (such as myself) and continues the RAND corporation’s tradition of contributing thoughtful, well-researched technical information on issues that affect citizens and government at every level.

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

ESM Research