Going through some old articles written for the DC Examiner, I came across some articles that were published back  in 2009/2010. Since they  are as relevant today as when they were written, I have republished the links to the originals :

Success has many fathers and Failure is an orphan†Not so!!! in the case of today’s H1N1 calamity.

Poly-Patria of the stark failures to protect a trusting public from known existential threats comes from all quarters of Federal government. State and Local governments have followed the Federal lead. Public health and healthcare sectors have turned a blind eye to evidenced-based information on existing hazards. Healthcare professional and trade organizations joined the collective apathy and denial with their advisors positing the theme which we discussed in an earlier article described by one legal expert “As one where if I do my best and create a strong plan, it may become a legal risk against me so it is best to hunker down and let events unfold. That may be the best legal protection available to me.â€

This cavalier and disdainful attitude toward meaningful protection for a vulnerable public can only exist in a grossly dysfunctional oversight environment. It thrives on an active and passive enabling structure which stretches from Congress to the lowest level of regulatory enforcement.

The birthing process of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was accompanied by a long and painful labor. One of the congenital anomalies was a frail and undernourished Health Affairs function. Much of the care and feeding of this function was transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in the hope that it would survive under the watchful eye of healthcare domain experts. The tragic healthcare failure of preparedness and response to Katrina/Rita/New Orleans sent the healthcare planners back to planning table. The multiple Congressional laws and DHS initiatives designed to mitigate future threats have done little to mobilize the healthcare industry.

Last year in our lecture series on healthcare readiness we surfaced the many gaps in the all-hazards readiness “DHS Hand-Off Of The Public Health and Healthcare Sector To A New Administration (of either party)-What is There To Hand-Off?†Our focus was on WMD non-state terrorist attacks and a perceived “window of opportunity†which a hand-off period presented to those who would do us harm. Those were legitimate concerns, however a deeper look into the reality of a Pandemic Flu event sparked our interest in H1N1, which has been the topic of several articles over the past two months as we tried to understand how calamities happen. These include the following:

Pandemic flu: What did four years and billions of dollars get us?

Children at Risk: Kids are not Miniature Adults.

Time for Healthcare Reform: What is being overlooked?

Time for Healthcare Reform: Congressional Oversight…?

As the death toll rises, we ask ourselves “Is a Heads Up enough to mitigate this outcome?â€
If the immediate past (21st Century) is prologue, the answer is a resounding “NOâ€.