Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers must often provide medical assistance without adequate time and resources. To encourage EMS providers not to be fearful of negligence lawsuits when they provide treatment, many states have enacted laws that protect them from civil liability. However, these laws provide immunity only under certain conditions.

When preparing for emergencies, planners should be cognizant of individuals with "special needs." Analyzing various governmental agencies’ definitions demonstrates a lack of general consensus on who should be considered “special needs,” thus making it difficult to accommodate these individuals in current emergency plans.

The H1N1 influenza virus, more commonly known as “swine flu,” emerged in the spring of 2009. In response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, New York State Health Commissioner Richard Daines, MD, enacted an emergency regulation requiring all New York healthcare personnel to receive the seasonal influenza and H1N1 influenza vaccine by November 30, 2009 as a precondition of employment.

On June 11, 2009, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the phase of alert in the Global Influenza Plan from level five to level six. The cause for this was the H1N1 virus which had already affected several countries. A level five alert is declared when more than one country in a single WHO geographic region is affected by the same virus.