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Feds dropped ball

To the Journal editor:

I had been a hospital emergency management team member for 12 years prior to my retirement and relocation back to the Upper Peninsula in early 2019. I was certified by FEMA and DHS in hospital disaster preparedness.

Federal Health and Human Services mandates hospitals to conduct emergency drills each year to fine tune their emergency response playbook. Our hospital conducted numerous pandemic drills during my tenure and each drill required an after-action report be written to document mistakes made and make improvements to the playbook in order to be better prepared for when, not if, a pandemic arrives.

Time is our enemy when a pandemic strikes! It is critical for government and local emergency management officials to quickly reference the playbook and come together to setup incident command system structures at federal, state and local levels to expedite preparedness, identify risks, and develop a unified virus response strategy to protect public health.

It is vital to keep the public informed of the current situation, the strategy to contain the spread, and the actions the public can take to protect their family and community. Public trust is key to stopping the spread of the virus and trust is earned by providing truthful information, by trained public information officers and medical experts, at regular intervals in a calm and clear manner throughout the pandemic.

It is paramount federal, state and local teams be on the same page when communicating with the public. The playbook allows customizing response strategies at each level, but at their core, they must dovetail seamlessly into a federal nationwide virus response strategy to be successful.

When the after-action report is written for COVID-19, it will document tragic human and economic impacts due to our federal political leaders ignoring their playbook and divided on virus risks, impacts, and strategies for political and personal reasons. This ultimately impeded development and implementation of unified federal/state/local pandemic response strategies targeting prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln

This goes for a pandemic response strategy.

I encourage you to seek the truth about COVID-19 directly from your Local Hospital, State Government, and Federal NIH/CDC/FDA websites. I’m wearing a mask and limiting my social contacts in order to protect my neighbors, community and country.

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