One of the red cross' major concerns is the extreme differences in nature that can be found with almost all disasters, and being able to allocate the correct resources at the correct time. It is also a volunteer organization with funding primarily coming from donations, so being able to maintain its workforce and revenue is a constant challenge.
Liberian emergency responders are portrayed in the film as being completely overwhelmed by the situation at hand and unable to cope with the nature of the illness, people's innitial denial to the extreme communicability of the disease, and the sheer number of patients. Most predominantly, first responders are illustrated by 2 abandoned ambulances on the side of a road and by the story of a woman saying that an ambulance was called to a dying pregnant woman and they ended up leaving her on the side of the road for an ebola crew to respond to, which came too late.
This report does not specifically address disaster, however it shows a new trend in primary care medicine, taking it out of doctor's offices and hospital emergency rooms and bringing it into people's residences. Recent trends have shown massive increases in ED usage for non emergency conditions, causing a shortage in beds and resources. The communuty paramedic program has the purpose of "respond[ing] to identified health needs in underserved communities, ultimately improving the quality of life and health of rural and remote citizens and visitors." The report also cites previous community paramedic programs in Fort Worth, TX, and Nova Scotia, Canada, where the program was shown to decrease ED usage by 23% and reduce costs by over $2 million.
I researched more into the use of vaccination to protect first responders, existing response structures implimented by the WHO, and the history of biological warfare.
1. I tried to find more information on the current radio system that the FDNY and NYPD employ to see how they would facilitate interagency communication and communication with mutual aid from departments in surrounding counties.
2. I did more research into the NYPD ESU
3. I attempted to find more information on any FDNY response policies developed after 9/11/01 to limit and coordinate response to major disasters to avoid the confustion found at the WTC response.
The arguement is supported by the use of statistics, case studies, and stories of immigrants going through the system.
This study is primarily about vulnerable populations, showing that in areas where people have been effected by major disasters, domestic violance increases, especially in households with lower overall socioeconomic status.
Amerindian populations in Canada have been plauged with mental illness and suicide for many decades, and even though there were studies done and extensive research available, there was very little done to respond to this crisis, allowing it to keep reoccuring.
Three major ways the arguements are supported are as follows
I followed up on this article by reading more about the Fukushima disaster, and I looked further into existing regulatory bodies such as the IAEA and and the Nuclear Energy Institute.