Post by scannerman5555 on Apr 21, 2004 20:58:32 GMT -5
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
From Newsday . com online
ISLANDWIDE
Nassau, Suffolk host dress rehearsal
By Jennifer Smith
Staff Writer
April 21, 2004, 2:16 PM EDT
If terrorists unleashed a contagion at a shopping mall, how quickly could authorities identify the problem and treat those exposed?
That's exactly what a bioterrorism dress rehearsal involving Nassau, Suffolk, and a host of local, state and federal agencies aims to find out this week.
The test began last weekend, when local hospitals began submitting mock reports about a number of citizens admitted with non-specific respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms. After a series of conference calls earlier this week between the state and nine participating counties to evaluate the make-believe threat, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was asked to step in on Tuesday.
"The more prepared you are, the more lives you will save," Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said Wednesday morning at a press conference in Islip updating the progress of the exercise.
Coordinated by the New York State Department of Health, the logistical exercise is a run-through to ensure the smooth distribution of federal "push packages": bundles of pharmaceuticals, antidotes and other medical supplies from a national stockpile that governors can request in case of an ill-defined bioterrorism threat. Workers from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta arrived in Islip this morning with placebo packages containing empty bottles of Cipro for distribution throughout Nassau and Suffolk.
The goal is make sure that local, state and federal agencies are "all marching to the same beat" if and when such an incident occurs, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said at the press conference. No glitches have come up yet, said Nassau Emergency Management Commissioner Richard Rotanz.
Thursday, Nassau County health workers will process and evaluate student volunteers posing as sick or exposed residents at a distribution center set up at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury. It would take 35 separate distribution centers about 10 days to make sure all county residents received prophylactic doses, said Carol La Salle, a planning section chief for Nassau's bioterrorism team. Suffolk County spokesman Edward Dumas said that Suffolk would conduct similar activities but declined to give specific details or locations.
Local officials emphasized that the exercise is not a response to specific terror threats. More tests are planned for later this year to refine any kinks discovered this time around; a larger run-through involving a different type of threat is slated for this summer.
"We're trying to make sure we're prepared, not scared," Suozzi said.
From Newsday . com online
ISLANDWIDE
Nassau, Suffolk host dress rehearsal
By Jennifer Smith
Staff Writer
April 21, 2004, 2:16 PM EDT
If terrorists unleashed a contagion at a shopping mall, how quickly could authorities identify the problem and treat those exposed?
That's exactly what a bioterrorism dress rehearsal involving Nassau, Suffolk, and a host of local, state and federal agencies aims to find out this week.
The test began last weekend, when local hospitals began submitting mock reports about a number of citizens admitted with non-specific respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms. After a series of conference calls earlier this week between the state and nine participating counties to evaluate the make-believe threat, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was asked to step in on Tuesday.
"The more prepared you are, the more lives you will save," Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said Wednesday morning at a press conference in Islip updating the progress of the exercise.
Coordinated by the New York State Department of Health, the logistical exercise is a run-through to ensure the smooth distribution of federal "push packages": bundles of pharmaceuticals, antidotes and other medical supplies from a national stockpile that governors can request in case of an ill-defined bioterrorism threat. Workers from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta arrived in Islip this morning with placebo packages containing empty bottles of Cipro for distribution throughout Nassau and Suffolk.
The goal is make sure that local, state and federal agencies are "all marching to the same beat" if and when such an incident occurs, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said at the press conference. No glitches have come up yet, said Nassau Emergency Management Commissioner Richard Rotanz.
Thursday, Nassau County health workers will process and evaluate student volunteers posing as sick or exposed residents at a distribution center set up at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury. It would take 35 separate distribution centers about 10 days to make sure all county residents received prophylactic doses, said Carol La Salle, a planning section chief for Nassau's bioterrorism team. Suffolk County spokesman Edward Dumas said that Suffolk would conduct similar activities but declined to give specific details or locations.
Local officials emphasized that the exercise is not a response to specific terror threats. More tests are planned for later this year to refine any kinks discovered this time around; a larger run-through involving a different type of threat is slated for this summer.
"We're trying to make sure we're prepared, not scared," Suozzi said.