Lessons learned from Katrina, 9/11, SARS, and other disasters
SHUTE: Thank you. Dr. Weisfuse, those of us who were covering the early days of the anthrax attacks just had a hair-tearing experience trying to get information out of CDC and some of the other agencies. You were on the other end trying to get information out to the people of New York. Tell us what worked for you and what didn't.
WEISFUSE: Well, you know, what worked for us was our mayor, Mayor Giuliani, who was very up front with going on the news with press conferences with our commissioner at the time, Dr. Neal Cohen, and explaining the situation. He did it as many times a day as needed, but certainly every day. And that was our major effort at getting out the word to people about what do to, what not to do, and what the update of the situation was. We also put a major effort in trying to relate and communicate with hospitals and medical providers in the city through what has become a health alert network, and something that we work very hard on, which is that connectivity with the medical community in the city so that they know what we're up to and what our recommendations are, and what the latest situation updates are.
SHUTE: I know you've also mentioned that you think that businesses, corporations, should be part of that health alert network. How do you think that's important?
WEISFUSE: Well, you know, we put a major effort in pandemic flu preparedness on talking to businesses in the city. And many large businesses that are located in the city have some occupational health infrastructure. And I tell them it is mandatory for your staff to be signed up for our health alert network. This is not a optional exercise. We're not going to be able to deal individually in terms of corporations in the midst of a crisis, with individual phone calls. It just is not going to work. But we will put our effort and our best information into these health alerts. And if you are signed up for it and use it and know how to use it, you'll get it and you'll get the latest information. We're not going to be able to realistically deal with individual phone calls on individual problems.
SHUTE: Thank you. If you had to fix one thing from the situation you went through, what would be at the top of your priority list, Ben?
DEBOISBLANC: That's an easy one – a satellite phone.
SHUTE: Okay, SAT phones for everybody. How about you, Dr. Franz?
FRANZ: It was to be able to have a very good idea of those who could take over for us at the end of a 60-day mission in terms of sustainability from a public health standard.
SHUTE: Did you have a sense of who those people should be or how did you leave it when you did leave?
FRANZ: No, we had worked starting day one of our mission, we worked for the instate of day 60, which was that the public health service who did come in as well as some displaced physicians and nurses as well as Louisiana State University at Lafayette, the medical center there, to take over for us. But as I mentioned, the public health services in Region Four had not had what I would call primary healthcare services come out of their public health clinics for over ten years. And again, it was no one's fault. It was just the way the system was. And so we had to start working on day one for a coalition at day 60 to take over for us. Otherwise, we would have been medical tourists, and not a group that came in to try to establish sustainability or something we could leave.
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