The majority of states (35) and Washington, D.C. received a score of 6 or lower on 10 crucial measures of public health preparedness, according to the 10th annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report.
Although there has been considerable improvement in public health preparedness over the past decade, especially in key abilities, the country still struggles with responding to health emergencies, such as severe weather incidents, bioterrorist threats, and serious outbreaks of disease.
Kansas and Montana received the lowest scores (3 out of 10) in the report, which was issued by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The highest scores (8 out of 10) were given to Mississippi, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Vermont.
Jeffrey Levi, PhD, executive director of TFAH, said:
“In the past decade, there have been a series of significant health emergencies, including extreme weather events, a flu pandemic and foodborne outbreaks. But, for some reason, as a country, we haven’t learned that we need to bolster and maintain a consistent level of health emergency preparedness. Investments made after September 11th, the anthrax attacks and Hurricane Katrina led to dramatic improvements, but now budget cuts and complacency are the biggest threats we face.”
We are able to see how prepared the U.S. is regarding public health emergencies through the report. Using data from sources available to the public, or information provided by public officials, measures of preparedness were developed in discussion with top public health specialists.
Important findings from the Ready or Not? report include:
- Public health funding from fiscal years (FY) 2010-11 to 2011-12 was cut by 29 states, 23 of which cut funds for a second consecutive year and 14 cut for the third year in a row. Federal funds for local and state preparedness have received a reduction of 38% from FY 2005-2012 (CDC -Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – funds, modified for inflation.
- The improvements seen over the past 10 years in public health preparedness since September 11, 2001 are wearing away, and over 45,700 jobs have been cut at state and local health departments due to budget cuts since 2008.
- Just 2 states achieved the country’s aim of giving the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine to 90% of kids aged 19 to 36 months. One of the most severe outbreaks of whooping cough occurred in Washington state in 2012.
- Complete climate change adaptation plans were not found in 35 states and Washington, D.C., meaning that they did not have plans for severe weather incidents that put people’s health in danger.
- 20 of the states did not instruct all authorized child care facilities to have a multi-hazard plan written down to leave the building.
- According to 12 state public health labs, in case of an outbreak of an infectious disease, such as influenza A H1N1, they do not have enough capacity to work five, 12-hour days for 2 months.
- Raise the preparedness for severe weather conditions
- Improve the nation’s food safety system
- The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) should be reauthorized
- Advance research, establishment, and production of medical countermeasures
- Antibiotic resistance should be seriously brought to concern
- Continuously offer support to the public to help them better deal with emergencies
- Biosurveillance should be updated to a “real-time, interoperable system” so that it can improve detection and react to issues
- Ensure that there are enough devoted funds for public health preparedness to be sure that public health departments are able to respond to threats that they face each day and that trained specialists are able to act fast to severe emergencies
- 8 out of 10 – Vermont, North Carolina, Maryland, Mississippi, and Wisconsin
- 7 out of 10 – Arkansas, Delaware, Alabama, New Hampshire, Virginia, New Mexico, California, New York, Nebraska, and New York
- 6 out of 10 – South Carolina, Louisiana, Idaho, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Utah, Tennessee, Missouri, Wyoming, Washington, and Oklahoma
- 5 out of 10 – Florida, Illinois, Arizona, Michigan, Alaska, Washington D.C., West Virginia, South Dakota, Texas, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Oregon
- 4 out of 10 – Hawaii, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia, and New Jersey
- 3 out of 10 – Montana and Kansas
Paul Kuehnert, MS RN Director of the Public Health Team at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explained:
“Public health preparedness has improved leaps and bounds from where we were 10 years ago. But severe budget cuts at the federal, state and local levels threaten to undermine that progress. We must establish a baseline of ‘better safe than sorry’ preparedness that should not be crossed.”
The report offers a succession of suggestions that should help solve some of the problems in the emergency health preparedness, including:
Overview of Scores
The TFAH’s website and RWJF’s website provide the full report, including a complete list of all the indicators and scores.
Each state was given 1 point for each indicator they achieved. The lowest overall score possible is zero, while the highest is 10. The state scores were as follows:
Written by Sarah Glynn