By Meaghan McCann
CHHS Research Assistant, summer 2010

There is a surprising addition to list of lessons learned from the U.S. response to the 2009 H1N1 outbreak: sometimes being over-prepared has its own risks.

Nearly two months into the devastating British Petroleum oil spill, the incident has released a public and political flood of anger and pointed questions regarding the responsibility of private entities to take on effective disaster preparedness, particularly when the consequences of a disaster have widespread public ramifications.

FEMA’s Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPG), not surprisingly, provides grant funding to selected urban areas across the country to improve catastrophic preparedness capabilities.

On January 16, 2010, CHHS Senior Law & Policy Analysts Robin Clark and Mike Vesely offered their expertise on terrorism and counter-terrorism for students participating in the Lancaster County Virginia Education Foundation academic forum.

The Middle Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (MARCE) represents a consortium of 45 scientists from 15 research institutions located in the Northeast United States who collaborate to research and develop new or improved therapeutic, vaccine, or diagnostic products that can be used by the public h

The novel H1N1 (swine) influenza presents a new threat to public health and safety that provides excellent opportunities for CHHS to work in both health and homeland security simultaneously with old and new clients. 

CHHS has gained a valuable partner in Towson University (my alma mater) for its work on Maryland’s two resource management projects for the FY08 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program. Towson’s Center for GIS (CGIS) will be working with us on what we call Project 6: Key Resources.

It’s a simple equation: Bring the right people together, get them talking, and you end up with tangible results.