By Bara Vaida
Public health emergencies happen. From a severe flu season or measles outbreaks to a massive wildfire or hurricane, count on them to be a mainstay of covering health. It can be helpful to understand how the government has tried to prepare for these types of incidents.
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, national, state and local government entities have worked to build a better response infrastructure, such as maintaining a national strategic stockpile of medical supplies and drugs, and bolstering the number of health care providers for emergencies with the U.S. Public Health Service Corps and the Medical Reserve Corps.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted the need for better coordination among federal, state, local and tribal entities to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, Congress the following year passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act (PAHPA).
PAHPA led to the creation of a dedicated office for preparedness called the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR). It is part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and operates the Hospital Preparedness Program and a research division called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). BARDA helps develop medical countermeasures to fight infectious diseases and bioterrorism.
The Hospital Preparedness Plan distributes about $269 million annually to hospitals across the country to help them purchase emergency health supplies, such as ventilators and mobile health units, and conduct training exercises.
BARDA receives about $1.2 billion in annual funding and money there is used to seed the creation of tools, vaccines and international preparedness for pandemics. BARDA also works to partner with private companies to spur development of new antibiotics.
ASPR recently funded the creation of a new Regional Health Disaster Response System to respond quickly to national health emergencies. Two centers piloting the program are the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which specializes in infectious disease outbreaks, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Also, PAHPA created the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program (PHEP), which is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support local public health departments with emergency health preparedness and exercises. PHEP recently was funded at $620 million for a five-year period, July 2019–June 2025.
In addition, PAHPA required the White House to develop a national biodefense strategy to respond to both an infectious disease outbreak and to the deliberate use of biological weapons. The White House released its strategy in September 2018 and is in the process of implementing the plan.
More than a decade after passage of PAHPA, there is much debate about the country’s readiness for emergencies. Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said there had been progress and the nation is better at responding to small-scale emergencies, but “we are not prepared as a country, or most of our communities for that matter, for a large-scale disaster … like a pandemic.”
Much of the challenge is that most of the nation’s health system belongs to private and non-governmental entities. Getting together to plan for a major disaster isn’t a top priority, health experts say.
“We don’t have a health care system, we have an amalgam of public and private entities that sometimes work together,” said Lisa Koonin, founder of Health Preparedness Partners and the CDC’s former deputy director of influenza coordination unit.
For health emergency contacts, see AHCJ tips sheet on covering flu, covering Ebola and this CQ Researcher report.
Story ideas
- With Ebola flaring in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the impact of climate changes on weather, consider a story about emergency preparedness.
- Have any local hospitals or public health department in your area received federal dollars for emergency preparedness? How are they using it? Are they prepared if there is a pandemic or a natural disaster? If they say they are prepared, does it reflect what is needed within your particular community’s population?
- Who are the people working on emergency preparedness strategies in your community? Tell their story.
- Public health departments often begin ramping up for flu season in the fall, so what are they doing this year? How are they combating the latest social media misinformation about vaccines?
- How does poverty affect the ability of communities to plan for disasters?
- What should families know to be prepared for a disaster in their particular region?
Sources
Kristin DeBord, director, Strategy Division, Office of Strategy, Policy, Planning and Requirements, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response: 202-401-5250; kristin.debord@hhs.gov.
Lisa Koonin, founder and principal at Health Preparedness Partners; adjunct assistant professor of health policy and management at Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina: 404-435-2551; lisakoonin@healthpreppartners.com.
Nora Lein, executive director, Northwest Healthcare Response Network, a network of hospitals in the U.S. Northwest working together on emergency preparedness: 425-988-2898.
Jennifer Pitcher, CEO of the Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare Coalition (MESH), which helps hospitals work together to prepare for a surge of patients in a medical emergency: 317-630-7409, mailto:info@meshcoalition.org.
Irwin Redlener, M.D., director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Can be reached via his assistant Meghan DeBerry: 212-535-9400, ext. 285 or iredlener@chfund.org.
Umair Shah, M.D., executive director of Harris County Public Health in Texas, can be reached via his media spokesman Erik Bakota: 713-439-6941.
Kenneth Shine, professor of medicine, Dell College of Medicine at the University of Texas, former head of the Institute of Medicine; has served on a variety of emergency preparedness commissions: 512-495-5555, d ellmedschool@utexas.edu.
