Testifying last week at a hearing regarding medical countermeasures to protect first responders, Al H. Gillespie, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), emphasized that “in recent years, numerous published studies have uncovered interesting questions and concerns held by responders.”

“For instance,” Gillespie told the House Committee on Homeland Security’s subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and communications, “the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine published a study by Columbia University examining the factors associated with the ability and willingness of essential workers to report to duty during a pandemic. The study … found that although a substantial proportion of participants reported that they would be able (80 percent); much less would be willing (65 percent) to report for duty. In fact, only 49 percent of the participants answered that they would be both able and willing.”

Read more @ hstoday.us

From the FEMA Blog  by Derek Jensen, Director, External Affairs, Center for Domestic Preparedness

A few months ago, we highlighted the introduction of biological materials into first responder training at FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness, in Anniston, Ala. Since the first group of responders went through this enhanced training on Feb. 8, a total of 270 responders from more than 30 different states have now trained with nonpathogenic strains of anthrax and ricin inside our Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological Training Facility.

We initially piloted two courses—Technical Emergency Response Training for CBRNE Incidents and Hazard Assessment and Response Management for CBRNE Incidents, and as we continue to expand our program, we will eventually include biological materials in three additional courses over the next year.

Read more @ blog.fema.gov

The White House’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal would shift hundreds of millions of dollars from a federal program to promote development of medical countermeasures against WMD threats to the initiative’s parent agency, Nature reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2011).

Project Bioshield was established in 2004 as a $5.6 billion war chest for the purchase of medical treatments for the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile. The Obama administration would shift $415 million from the fund to the Health and Human Services Department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The authority manages Project Bioshield as part of its broader mandate to support development of medical countermeasures for use against  weapons of mass destruction.

Read more @ nti.org

From the FEMA Blog

Wednesday morning, February 8, at 9:57 a.m. CST, as most people were probably going about their workday, a historic event happened at FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Ala. At that moment, the first group of state, local, and tribal responders went through live agent training inside CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological, or COBRA, training facility using biological materials.

Since the CDP opened in 1998 the facility has provided the only location in the U.S. where civilian responders could train with chemical agents GB and VX. As of Wednesday, those same responders can now include biological materials in their training repertoire.

Read more at the FEMA Blog