Toward a More Strategic National Stockpile

Toward a More Strategic National Stockpile
Author: Troy A. Rule
Publisher:
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered major deficiencies in the United States' approach to stockpiling for emergencies. States, cities and hospitals across the country had inadequate stores of critical medical items on hand when the pandemic reached US soil, and the federal government's Strategic National Stockpile proved far too small to fill this inventory gap. As nationwide shortages worsened, many state governments began bidding against each other to procure scarce medical supplies -- a distribution approach that inherently disadvantaged low-income and minority communities and left countless health care professionals and staff ill-equipped to protect themselves against a potentially deadly virus. These failings have generated an unprecedented push to reform the nation's stockpiling policy structure. This Article uses a simple stockpiling cost-benefit model to highlight shortcomings in the existing US stockpiling policy regime and to identify specific new policy strategies capable of addressing them. Among other things, US stockpiling policies need to better account for important differences in the rotatability of supplies and should more aggressively incentivize private stockpiling of the most rotatable emergency items. Reshaping commandeering laws and price-gouging restrictions could also do much to strengthen private incentives to stockpile and could even help to clarify how states and the federal government share responsibilities in the nation's stockpiling effort. Additional federal support is likewise needed to incentivize the build-out and maintenance of domestic supply chains for the least-rotatable emergency goods. These reforms and certain related policy changes could help to ensure that the nation is far better equipped to respond the next time disaster strikes.

Prepositioning Antibiotics for Anthrax

Prepositioning Antibiotics for Anthrax
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2012-02-26
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 030921808X

If terrorists released Bacillus anthracis over a large city, hundreds of thousands of people could be at risk of the deadly disease anthrax-caused by the B. anthracis spores-unless they had rapid access to antibiotic medical countermeasures (MCM). Although plans for rapidly delivering MCM to a large number of people following an anthrax attack have been greatly enhanced during the last decade, many public health authorities and policy experts fear that the nation's current systems and plans are insufficient to respond to the most challenging scenarios, such as a very large-scale anthrax attack. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response commissioned the Institute of Medicine to examine the potential uses, benefits, and disadvantages of strategies for repositioning antibiotics. This involves storing antibiotics close to or in the possession of the people who would need rapid access to them should an attack occur. Prepositioning Antibiotics for Anthrax reviews the scientific evidence on the time window in which antibiotics successfully prevent anthrax and the implications for decision making about prepositioning, describes potential prepositioning strategies, and develops a framework to assist state, local, and tribal public health authorities in determining whether prepositioning strategies would be beneficial for their communities. However, based on an analysis of the likely health benefits, health risks, and relative costs of the different prepositioning strategies, the book also develops findings and recommendations to provide jurisdictions with some practical insights as to the circumstances in which different prepositioning strategies may be beneficial. Finally, the book identifies federal- and national-level actions that would facilitate the evaluation and development of prepositioning strategies. Recognizing that communities across the nation have differing needs and capabilities, the findings presented in this report are intended to assist public health officials in considering the benefits, costs, and trade-offs involved in developing alternative prepositioning strategies appropriate to their particular communities.

Ensuring an Effective Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise

Ensuring an Effective Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher:
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2022-08-03
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780309271486

The U.S. medical countermeasures (MCMs) enterprise is interconnected, complex, and dynamic. It includes public and private entities that develop and manufacture new and existing MCMs, ensure procurement, storage, and distribution of MCMs, and administer, monitor, and evaluate MCMs. The interagency group known as the Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE) is the nation's sole coordinating body, responsible for ensuring end-to-end MCM preparedness and response. Ensuring an Effective Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise provides recommendations from an expert committee for a re-envisioned PHEMCE. Four priority areas of improvement emerged from committee deliberations: (1) articulating PHEMCE's mission and role and explicating the principles guiding PHEMCE's operating principles and processes, (2) revising PHEMCE operations and processes, (3) collaborating more effectively with external public and private partners, and (4) navigating legal and policy issues.

Improving Pandemic Preparedness

Improving Pandemic Preparedness
Author: Thomas Bollyky
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations Press
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2020-10-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9780876092644

The United States and the world were unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, despite decades of warnings highlighting the inevitability of global pandemics and the need for international coordination. The failure to prioritize and adequately fund preparedness and effectively implement response plans has exacted a heavy human and economic price, and the crisis is not yet over. Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases are a threat to global and national security that neither the United States nor the world can afford to ignore. This Task Force proposes a comprehensive strategy that includes institutional reforms and policy innovations to help the United States and the multilateral system perform better in this crisis and when the next one emerges. Without increased U.S. leadership on and adequate investment in pandemic preparedness and response, the United States and the world will remain unnecessarily vulnerable to epidemic threats. The Council on Foreign Relations sponsors Independent Task Forces to assess issues of current and critical importance to U.S. foreign policy and provide policymakers with concrete judgments and recommendations. Diverse in backgrounds and perspectives, Task Force members aim to reach a meaningful consensus on policy through private deliberations. Once launched, Task Forces are independent of CFR and are solely responsible for the content of their reports. Task Force members are asked to join a consensus signifying that they endorse the general policy thrust and judgments reached by the group, though not necessarily every finding and recommendation. Each Task Force member also has the option of putting forward an additional or a dissenting view.

Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response

Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response
Author: World Health Organization
Publisher: World Health Organization
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2009
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9241547685

This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).

Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18th Edition

Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18th Edition
Author: Dan Longo
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
Total Pages: 4323
Release: 2011-07-21
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 007174889X

The most trusted textbook in medicine -- featuring the acclaimed Harrison's DVD with 57 additional chapters and exclusive video and tutorials Now presented in TWO VOLUMES As reviwed by JAMA: "With the 18th edition, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine retains its standing as a definitive clinical reference and remains an outstanding foundation for any physician or physician-in-training. In many regards, Harrison’s remains synonymous not just with internal medicine but with medicine in general. The editors of the 18th edition have skillfully balanced tradition with the desire and need for innovation. The result is a book that remains as fundamental to current medical practice as the first edition was in 1949." --JAMA Extensively revised and expanded by the world’s leading physicians, Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e continues to set the standard as the pinnacle of current medical knowledge and practice, offering the definitive review of disease mechanisms and management. CURRENT All chapters have been completely updated to reflect the latest knowledge and evidence, and important new chapters have been added, including: "Systems Biology in Health and Disease," "The Human Microbiome," "The Biology of Aging," and "Neuropsychiatric Illnesses in War Veterans." CONNECTED Harrison's covers more global aspects of medicine than any other textbook, and features such chapters as "Global Issues in Medicine," by Jim Yong Kim, Paul Farmer, and Joseph Rhatigan, and new to the 18th edition, "Primary Care in Low and Middle Income Countries." COMPREHENSIVE No other resource delivers coverage of disease mechanisms and management like Harrison's, including world-renowned chapters on HIV/AIDS, STEMI and non-STEMI myocardial infarction, cancer biology, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. The Harrison’s Multi-Media DVD— Better Than Ever! The Harrison’s DVD has been expanded to include an extensive video demonstration of the neurological physical examination, and video tutorials on how to perform essential clinical procedures, including: Thoracentesis Abdominal Paracentesis Endotracheal Intubation Central Venous Catheter Placement 57 additional chapters and more than 2,000 images make the companion DVD an essential part of every physician's education, practice, and lifelong learning.The DVD also features PowerPoint presentations from fifty chapters to facilitate classroom lectures, and a free trial subscription to AccessMedicine.com (including Harrison's Online). Harrison’s 18e is proud to present a tribute to longtime editor, Eugene Braunwald, MD for his outstanding and continuing contributions to medical knowledge and practice.

I, Pencil

I, Pencil
Author: Leonard Edward Read
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Capitalism
ISBN: 9781630697006

"FEE's mission is to inspire, educate, and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society."-from verso.

National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness

National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness
Author: Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1510767614

The ultimate guide for anyone wondering how President Joe Biden will respond to the COVID-19 pandemic—all his plans, goals, and executive orders in response to the coronavirus crisis. Shortly after being inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden and his administration released this 200 page guide detailing his plans to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness breaks down seven crucial goals of President Joe Biden's administration with regards to the coronavirus pandemic: 1. Restore trust with the American people. 2. Mount a safe, effective, and comprehensive vaccination campaign. 3. Mitigate spread through expanding masking, testing, data, treatments, health care workforce, and clear public health standards. 4. Immediately expand emergency relief and exercise the Defense Production Act. 5. Safely reopen schools, businesses, and travel while protecting workers. 6. Protect those most at risk and advance equity, including across racial, ethnic and rural/urban lines. 7. Restore U.S. leadership globally and build better preparedness for future threats. Each of these goals are explained and detailed in the book, with evidence about the current circumstances and how we got here, as well as plans and concrete steps to achieve each goal. Also included is the full text of the many Executive Orders that will be issued by President Biden to achieve each of these goals. The National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness is required reading for anyone interested in or concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on American society.