Written by Faisal Khan, MBBS, MPH, director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health The St. Louis region played a significant role in the development of America’s atomic weapons program in the 1940s, and the impacts of this legacy continue to be felt today. Brief history From 1942 to 1957, the Mallinckrodt Chemical Plant extracted […]
Tag: Preparedness
Preparedness resource guide
In conjunction with Prepared for Peril: Readiness and Recovery for Public Health Threats, the Institute prepared this guide with a variety of resources relating to the conference theme. General emergency preparedness All-Hazards Preparedness Guide, 2013 Best Practices for Communicating with the Public During an Outbreak, 2005 Clinician Outreach and Communication Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication […]
Linking community members to key resources with 2-1-1
Written by Regina L. Greer, vice president of community response at United Way of Greater St. Louis Imagine being a first responder that saves a family from their severely damaged home; a concerned citizen witnessing devastation and grief on the faces of your neighbors on TV; or a parent seeking food, water, and toiletries for […]
A health threat anywhere is a health threat everywhere
Written by RADM Stephen Redd, MD, director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) We issued a challenge to ourselves and to all nations of the world to make concrete pledges towards three key goals: prevent, detect and respond. We have to prevent outbreaks by […]
Emergency preparedness planning on a regional Level
Written by Dominic “Nick” Gragnani, executive director of the St. Louis Area Regional Response System Since 2003, there has been a little-known emergency and disaster planning agency that has been diligently working to improve St. Louis disaster response capabilities of first responder and general healthcare agencies. The St. Louis Area Regional Response System, better known […]
Communication about threats: Keep it simple, visual, and specific
Every day, the general public is inundated with news about potential threats such as tornadoes, food contamination, and infectious disease outbreaks. The media keep the public up-to-date on these threats, both big and small. And while the media can be a valuable tool in disseminating information in threatening situations, they often miss the mark of […]