Humanities Homework Help

Discussion Requirements

A substantive comment should be approximately 300 words or more for each response (A total of 3 responses).

Read the initial comments posted by your classmates and reflect upon them.

Before writing your comments:

• Review the Discussion grading rubric to see what is expected for an excellent discussion, in order to earn full credit.
• Review some resources to help you synthesize, such as the following:

Sullivan, J. (2011). Strategies for Synthesis Writing. Retrieved from http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/edu/Strategies-for-Synthesis-Writing.html

NOTE: You are required to cite sources and include a reference list for the second post if it is simply your opinion. However, if your opinion is based on facts (as it should be), it is good practice to strengthen your position by citing sources.

Be sure to meet all of the criteria in the rubric, as noted in the instructions above.

Third post for each module discussion:

Read the initial and secondary comments posted by your classmates and reflect upon them.

Directly respond to at least one classmate in a way that extends meaningful discussions, adds new information, and/or offers alternative perspectives.

MY POST

DO NOT RESPOND

Classmates and Professor,

COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency in the United States

Covid-19 pandemic is an emergency that has hit the United States. The healthcare department has significantly been affected and the challenges faced have helped define necessary actions for healthcare disaster management. The unprecedented occurrence of the pandemic has positioned healthcare practitioners, patients, and families at the risk of contracting the virus. Healthcare workers have been provided with safety equipment to ensure minimal direct contact cases with the virus.

As a healthcare emergency disaster, poor communication has hampered essential operations. In the early stages of the pandemic, the government ignored the threats posed by the virus, and vital restrictions were ignored. This was after the health department in the United States reported the possibility of the virus, but much was not done to ensure that the threat was contained within its initial stages. With reports of its origin from China, the health and security departments ought to have reacted quickly and assess the danger and possible means of preventing its spread across the country (Lange et al., 2020). However, with poor communication among essential departments, including security and healthcare units, the virus began to spread from one state to another.

In 2020, the U.S faced a spike of Covid-19 infections, with high death rates being recorded daily. At some time, the country had the highest number of deaths recorded daily compared to other parts of the world. The health system faced immense pressure, and it was stretched beyond its capacity. So far, the number of deaths recorded in the country is an average of 600,147, with 33,715,951 virus cases. The Novel Coronavirus has caused a substantial disruption to the American economy (Hartnett et al., 2020). With lockdowns on central states, a majority of Americans have had to work at home where various businesses have been temporarily closed for the period the pandemic was on a spike. Lawmakers have enacted significant bills costing an upward of $ 5.3 trillion to assist handle the economic burdens on businesses and families. $174 billion has been set aside to enhance Covid-19 testing, vaccination, and contact tracing. In March 2020, $8.3 billion was set aside for vaccine research and funding health agencies (Chudik et al., 2020).

An action that could have prevented the problems above would be the containment of U.S borders the moment the initial Covid-19 infections were reported. This could have allowed the healthcare department to carry out efficient contact tracing while the number of conditions was minimum. This was feasible with the collaboration of state agencies such as the security and immigration departments. Since it had been established that the virus was transmitted through direct contact with a person, surface, and airborne transmission, public sensitizations ought to have been carried out at the moment, ensuring that citizens observed the set healthcare guidelines.

Pedro

References

Chudik, A., Mohaddes, K., Pesaran, M. H., Raissi, M., & Rebucci, A. (2020, October 20). Economic consequences of Covid-19: a counterfactual multi-country analysis. Retrieved from The Forum ERF Policy Portal: https://theforum.erf.org.eg/2020/10/20/economic-co…

Hartnett, K. P., Kite-Powell, A., DeVies, J., Coletta, M. A., Boehmer, T. K., Adjemian, J., & Gundlapalli, A. V. (2020, June 2020). Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Emergency Department Visits—United States, January 1, 2019–May 30, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(23), 699.

Lange, S. J., Ritchey, M. D., Goodman, A. B., Dias, T., Twentyman, E., Fuld, J., … & Yang, Q. (2020, June 26). Potential indirect effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on use of emergency departments for acute life‐threatening conditions—United States, January–May 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(25), 795-800.

RESPONSE 1

PROFESSOR QUESTION

Based on hindsight do you feel that the government provided enough information about what was going on during COVID and what are some lessons that could be learned going forward?

RESPONSE 2

Hello class and professor!

One of the tragic moments in our nation’s history was the Boston Bombings. On April 15, 2013, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev detonated two pressure cookers, within seconds of each other, on the Boston Marathon runners and spectators. As a result of their actions, three were killed and more than two hundred were injured. Who was responsible for letting this happen or was it unpreventable? Was it the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the Central Intelligence Agency, or maybe the Massachusetts State Police? In a report by Office of the Inspector General (2014), “Two years before the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva came to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) based on information received from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).” In months after, the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston (with Massachusetts State Police involvement) posed no threat to national security, and the Tsarnaev brothers assessment was closed. In another after actions review, U.S. Government Publishing Office (2014), it was determined that “information sharing as well as the follow up could have been better”.

One single action, such as passing information to the Massachusetts State Police or local law enforcement to check on the Tsarnaev brothers could have made a difference. I’m not saying it could have prevented the bombing, but may have helped. Further reading the statement of Senator Ayotte in the testimony, he asked why information was passed from a CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) agent to an FBI agent via sticky note (Office of the Inspector General, 2014); this process was fixed, but should have never occurred.

Implementation of better information sharing is very feasible. The offices need to create an information sharing, collaborative environment where there is this repository of information. An email may have been more official, and also a better was of being tracked as well. I also think a more thorough database search, by the FBI, would have been useful, but were not done, states Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice (Office of the Inspector General, 2014).

v/r,

TACK

References:

Office of the Inspector General. (2014, April 10). Unclassified Summary of Information Handling and Sharing Prior to the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. Retrieved May 25, 2021, from Office of the Inspector General: https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2014/s1404.pdf

U.S. Government Publishing Office. (2014, April 30). Lessons Learned From The Boston Marathon Bombings: Improving Intelligence And Information Sharing. Retrieved May 25, 2021, from Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113shrg89…

RESPONSE 3

Class and Professor,

In 2017 Sonoma County in California was devastated by wildfires that required evacuation of the entire county. The event was the most destructive wildfire in California history. Days leading up to the event, the National Weather Service issued red flag warnings in the Northern California region for winds gusting between 25-35 mph. As winds increased to 41 mph along with reports of 79 mph in some areas and combination with the dry air the first fire arose in the town of Tubbs. Driven by the strong winds the fire burned 37,000 acres and pushed towards the hills and wildland towards Santa Rosa. In conjunction a separate set of fires began to spread in the southern towns of Sonoma bringing 57,000 acres to a crisp. All in all, the fires claimed 5,000 structures, 25 lives and 100 thousand of acres.

California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services published a report of the County’s disaster plan, the findings were astonishing. Gaps in communication were discovered, mainly in communicating to the public alert and warming systems. The decision by the County Emergency Manager not to use the federal WEA System to push text alerts to all cellular phones in the warning area has become a subject of scrutiny, especially in media coverage during and after the fires (Cal OES, 2018). This decision was made from outdated experiences where personnel believed the system was old-fashioned and would not provide enough information. This was not the case as since WEA’s inception it has continually stayed current with technological advances.

A fix was to establish procedures for coordinating alert and warning message delivery between platforms to ensure the messages are delivered to as many potentially impacted individuals as possible. Additionally, a public outreach is required to ensure the community knows about the alert system and the process by which individuals can sign up to receive these alerts. Use of WEA for all critical public alert and warnings as it reaches all wireless telephones in the affected area, not only those that have pre-registered. People who are visiting a local area, such as tourists, are unlikely to have enrolled in a local service but will still be reached by WEA. WEA alerts use the wireless network more efficiently and are less exposed to network congestion effects. While communication is key in plans effective communication to those in harm’s way is of equal importance.

Roderick

Work Cited:

Cal OES. (2018). Public Alert and Warning Ass-ment Program for Sonoma County. Retrieved 16 May 2021, from http://code.pressdemocrat.com/pdf/Sonoma%20Assessm…

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Module 4 – Background

PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS

Required Reading

Bier, D., & Feeney, M. (2018). Drones on the border: Efficacy and privacy implications. CATO Institute. Retrieved from https://www.cato.org/publications/immigration-rese…

Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners #1 – Overview. Retrieved from

National Incident Management System, 3rd. ed. (2017), FEMA, Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1508151197…

Shiu-Thornton et al. (2007). Disaster preparedness for limited English proficient communities: Medical Interpreters as cultural brokers and gatekeepers. Public Health Reports, 122(4), 466-471. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC18885…

Unmanned systems integrated roadmap FY2011 – 2036 (2011). FAS.org. Retrieved from https://fas.org/irp/program/collect/usroadmap2011….

Required Video

Just in Time Disaster Training Library. [nfrdstf]. (2013, September 25). Radiological terrorism: Training for hospital clinicians [Video file]. Retrieved from

Required Websites

California Earthquake Program. http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/Cat_Nat_Disaster/…

Disaster Emergency Communications Division, FEMA: https://www.fema.gov/disaster-emergency-communicat…

FEMA: National Response Framework.https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/document…

Preparing Hospitals for Disasters: Emergency Operations Plan (EOP).
http://www.calhospitalprepare.org/emergency-operat…

Radiological dispersal devices (RDDs). Radiation Emergency Medical Management, HHS.
https://www.remm.nlm.gov/rdd.htm