What Smart Communities Can Learn From the Flu
What can government and smart communities learn from the flu? You’d be surprised.
What can government and smart communities learn from the flu? You’d be surprised.
For more than six decades, the National Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has been at the forefront of research in infectious and immune mediated diseases, microbiology, immunology, and related disciplines. It conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, diagnose, prevent, and treat infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, as wellRead… Read more »
Now is the winter of our discontentMade inglorious winter by these germs at work;And all the viruses that lour’d upon our houseIn the deep bosom of the arctic buried. Okay, the first line was directly from Shakespeare’s Richard III – the rest was my butchery of his poem! Sorry Bill… I am fortunate that IRead… Read more »
With so many people I know fighting the flu and our concerns about the H1N1 epidemic, I have been thinking about the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, GIPHIN, the Canadian’s based public health early warning systems, and the role it played during the SARS scare. I first heard about GPHIN back in late 2005 andRead… Read more »
In case anyone needs more reasons why investing time in social media should be strongly considered, especially at the local government level, I offer this case study (from my own view, of course). In the last three weeks, the H1N1 vaccine has been slowly rolling out to local jurisdictions. In Fairfax County, we’ve now hostedRead… Read more »
In an AP article on May 8, people were quoted as accusing the government of overreacting to the recent H1N1 outbreak. While it is a blessing that the virus was not as deadly as originally feared, it is disturbing that people are more concerned with the disruption of their daily routine than the potential forRead… Read more »
Federal information technology issues are having a busy week. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Veterans Committee holds a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for Roger Baker to be an Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Information and Technology as well as the department’s CIO. It’s a great pick for the department that’s often been tangled inRead… Read more »
From the CDC In response to an intensifying outbreak in the United States and internationally caused by a new influenza virus of swine origin, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 5. on April 29, 2009. A Phase 5 alert is a “strong signal that a pandemic is imminent andRead… Read more »
For the second time this year social media and diasters have worked well together. First Fargo North Dakota got out the message on twitter, fliker and webcams. People showed up not because of the news but IM and tweets. Now swine flu has been a topic on Twitter. CDCEmergency and others have posted links toRead… Read more »
A longer version of this post is also available at the Reach the Public Blog. Federal, state, and local health agencies are working overtime to inform the public about the recent Swine Flu outbreak that is currently affecting Mexico and small portions of the United States, but that poses a real international threat. Direct informationRead… Read more »