We're in Trouble..
..when I get nominated to join the DEOC (Director's Emergency Operations Center), the "centralized management location for any operational event" that takes place in the future (either abroad or in the US). It's all brand new, state of the art, and designed to respond to outbreaks, bioterrorism, natural disasters, etc. I'm excited to start participating in the exercises and actually doing the work when a crisis arises (see: me being deployed to some remote country with Ebola;). Learning how all these professionals work together is crucial to not only understanding what needs to be done, but what can be done better in the future.
The last exercise performed by the DEOC was covered extensively in the media:
"In the script, a student infected with a new strain of H5N1 virus returns from Indonesia where a bird flu outbreak is under way. He dies but not before infecting others, including members of a swimming team.
On Day One, 12 people contract the disease in four states and 25 percent die, a rate that shows the virus to be particularly lethal.
By Day Two, there are 25 cases and CDC is forced to consider whether to recommend ordering schools to close, banning flights from Indonesia or even shutting U.S. borders.
They decide against these measures but send experts to Indonesia, release a quarter of the U.S. stockpile of flu vaccines and force all international flights to land at just 10 airports to screen passengers and limit the disease’s spread."
--Reuters.
USAtoday
NPR
Reuters
CBC
3 Comments:
A common qualifier question for the PhD students from the Science Policy program here at CMU is similar to the exercise scenario here. Your given about a few days to think up, write up and present a formal plan to respond to one of these scenarios. But one main difference is that not only are you being tested on the feasibility, robustness and effectiveness of the plan, but your knowledge on any underlying theory or assumption used in your model is put to test. For instance, you might state some statistical assumption, but of course some dude in the crowd who has written a textbook on statistics decides to roast you alive. Takes the fun out of such a challenge, for sure...
10:23 AM
Just look for the monkey hanging out with Dustin Hoffman.
3:35 AM
In all seriousness though, that sounds like an awesome team to be a part of. You have to post more on this.
3:38 AM
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