In the US, bioterrorism response planning is multifaceted since every community has its own resources, needs, and challenges, which requires a specific approach. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Preparedness (CDC), community-based preparation includes identifying local needs and opportunities, building partnerships, and working on capabilities to cope with a potential attack. In addition, public health response activities involve improved surveillance, vaccination strategies, information management, and epidemiological investigation (“Bioterrorism response planning”, 2017).
Since human resources are critical to address bioterrorism, the country also focuses on healthcare facility activities, such as staff vaccination, enhanced care for service providers, and a variety of strategies to prevent the spread of a disease. While the above response planning seems to be relevant and multidimensional, the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the US failed to effectively resist this virus.
According to Murthy et al. (2017), the national health emergency preparedness increased by almost 200% in terms of strengthening their capabilities, while more than 20% of states remain underdeveloped in terms of bioterrorism preparedness. As it is shown by Murthy et al. (2017) and the situation with the coronavirus, there is a lack of trained personnel and sustained resources. Even though the spread of this virus was unintentional, its effects are devastating to the healthcare system, economy, and, most importantly, people.
Therefore, the current state of the preparedness cannot be estimated as high or sufficient, and the approach needs to be elaborated. It would be better if more attention could also be paid to the accessibility of care and education of people, who can also contribute to addressing the disease at an individual level (Chowell & Mizumoto, 2020). Hospital preparedness, stress coping, and clear care protocols seem to be important areas to consider to improve the existing bioterrorism readiness planning.
References
Bioterrorism response planning. (2017). Web.
Chowell, G., & Mizumoto, K. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic in the USA: What might we expect?. The Lancet, 395(10230), 1093-1094.
Murthy, B. P., Molinari, N. A. M., LeBlanc, T. T., Vagi, S. J., & Avchen, R. N. (2017). Progress in public health emergency preparedness—United States, 2001–2016. American Journal of Public Health, 107(2), 180-185.