William R. Clark
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336214
- eISBN:
- 9780199868537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336214.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
This chapter examines one of the many war games-like exercises carried out beginning in the 1990s to test the reaction of government officials to a hypothetical bioterrorist attack. In this exercise, ...
More
This chapter examines one of the many war games-like exercises carried out beginning in the 1990s to test the reaction of government officials to a hypothetical bioterrorist attack. In this exercise, smallpox virus is released simultaneously at three sites across America. Experienced government officials played the roles of the president, his cabinet, and members of the National Security Council in formulating responses to information fed them by exercise planners. As the players stumble through their roles, the situation rapidly spins out of control, and hundreds of thousands of hypothetical deaths occur. This exercise contributed to a sense of panic among government officials, and contributed to the commitments of enormous sums of money to try to remedy perceived shortcomings in our ability to respond to a real bioterrorist attack.Less
This chapter examines one of the many war games-like exercises carried out beginning in the 1990s to test the reaction of government officials to a hypothetical bioterrorist attack. In this exercise, smallpox virus is released simultaneously at three sites across America. Experienced government officials played the roles of the president, his cabinet, and members of the National Security Council in formulating responses to information fed them by exercise planners. As the players stumble through their roles, the situation rapidly spins out of control, and hundreds of thousands of hypothetical deaths occur. This exercise contributed to a sense of panic among government officials, and contributed to the commitments of enormous sums of money to try to remedy perceived shortcomings in our ability to respond to a real bioterrorist attack.
William R. Clark
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336214
- eISBN:
- 9780199868537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336214.003.0008
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
Who is running the show in a nation-wide health crisis? The federal government? Individual states? Preservation of the public health is a power granted to individual states, as an exercise of their ...
More
Who is running the show in a nation-wide health crisis? The federal government? Individual states? Preservation of the public health is a power granted to individual states, as an exercise of their constitutionally guaranteed policing powers. But recent legislation (and funding) have put a huge number of resources into the federal government's hands. Lines of fiscal and administrative authority must be worked out in advance of any real crisis. One of the most important powers needed in catastrophic health crises concerns coercive powers: mandatory medical examinations and treatment of at-risk individuals, for example, or compulsory isolation or quarantining of infected persons, or even confiscation of contaminated property or human remains. To deal with these and other critical issues, a Model State Emergency Health Powers Act was drafted in 2001. This chapter looks at this Act, and the numerous issues it has tried to address.Less
Who is running the show in a nation-wide health crisis? The federal government? Individual states? Preservation of the public health is a power granted to individual states, as an exercise of their constitutionally guaranteed policing powers. But recent legislation (and funding) have put a huge number of resources into the federal government's hands. Lines of fiscal and administrative authority must be worked out in advance of any real crisis. One of the most important powers needed in catastrophic health crises concerns coercive powers: mandatory medical examinations and treatment of at-risk individuals, for example, or compulsory isolation or quarantining of infected persons, or even confiscation of contaminated property or human remains. To deal with these and other critical issues, a Model State Emergency Health Powers Act was drafted in 2001. This chapter looks at this Act, and the numerous issues it has tried to address.
