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Four Questions About the Covid-19 Pandemic

Emergency Planning

What are, and have been, the key challenges in coping with the Covid-19 pandemic? The first challenge is to understand the behaviour of an emerging disease caused by a new variant of a virus. Viral pandemics can have impacts that are as significant in the socio-economic field as they are in epidemiology and viral medicine.

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A Proposed Strategy to Advocate for Improved Civil Protection in the United Kingdom

Emergency Planning

The lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic, alas largely negative, show that a good civilian system designed to protect the public against major hazards and threats can save thousands of lives and billions in losses and wasted expenditure. Non-seasonal influenza retains the potential to cause a pandemic on the level of that of 1918-1920.

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Managing Emergencies: The Challenges of the Future

Emergency Planning

Oddly, it was sidelined during the pandemic as the Cabinet Office Minister, Michael Gove, judged it to be 'too extreme'. Wording of this kind is designed to defy the country's leading philosophers of logic, and let's remember that the Act is designed to tackle a major emergency–sorry, disaster. Emergency planning is a vital occupation.

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Covid-19: Elements of a Scenario

Emergency Planning

It is now more than ten years since there was a general push to induce countries to plan for pandemics (WHO 2005). About the same time, 2007, Dr Michael Leavitt of the US Department of Health and Human Services wrote: "We don't know when a pandemic will arrive. Major epidemics and pandemics (what is the difference?)

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State of the Nation - a UK Perspective on Covid-19

Emergency Planning

Since the start of the crisis, I have constantly affirmed that the key to understanding the effects of this pandemic is the UK Government's failure to give adequate weight to emergency planning and management (Alexander 2020a, 2020b). There were major exercises on pandemics in 2005, 2007 and 2016. Exercise Cygnus Report.

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Covid-19 and the Disaster Research Gold Rush

Emergency Planning

As I write, the Covid-19 pandemic is ramping up in many countries. So is the response by academic authors. Authors can write in haste and repent at their leisure: editors can rue the day. In 2015 Gaillard and Gomez published an interesting paper on the "disaster research gold rush".

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Common Misconceptions about Disaster

Emergency Planning

Myth 10: After disaster people will not make rational decisions and will therefore inevitably tend to do the wrong thing unless authority guides them. Myth 35: We are well organised to face a pandemic or CBRN attack. Myth 36: In a biological terrorism attack or pandemic prophylaxis will be effective and efficient.