Pandemic Planning

J. Eric Dietz, David R. Black, J. Eric Dietz, David R. Black

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781466559141
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Diritto
• Subtopic: Scienza forense

Preparedness and rigorous planning on community, state, and regional levels are critical to containing the threat of pandemic illness. Steeped in research and recommendations from lessons learned, Pandemic Planning describes the processes necessary for the efficient and effective preparation, prevention, response, and recovery from a pandemic threa

Chapter 1

Resources Available to Assist with Planning and Monitoring a Pandemic

Bert Chapman

Contents

Abstract

US Government Legal Resources

US Government Executive Branch Resources

Army Public Health Command

Avian Influenza Action Group

Avian Influenza—US Department of Agriculture

Department of Defense (DOD) Resources

Force Health Protection and Readiness

Environmental Protection Agency Homeland Security

Department of Health and Human Services

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

National Library of Medicine

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL)

Ready.gov

Ignet.gov

Medical Countermeasures

Transportation Pandemic Resources

Congressional Resources

Congressional Bills

Congressional Committee Reports

Congressional Committee Hearings

House and Senate Appropriations Committees

House Energy and Commerce Committee

House Homeland Security Committee

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Congressional Budget Office

Congressional Research Service

Government Accountability Office

US State Government Information Sources

International and Foreign Government Pandemic Resources

World Health Organization

European Union Public Health

Pan American Health Organization

Argentina Ministry of Health

Australia Department of Health and Ageing

Brazil Ministry of Health

Canada—Health Canada

China Ministry of Health

Germany—The German Federal Health Ministry

India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Israel Ministry of Health

Japan Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare

South Africa Department of Health

United Kingdom Department of Health

References

Abstract

Numerous publicly accessible information resources are available from US federal and state and foreign and international government organizations for examining the multiple factors involved in governmental policymaking responses to public health emergencies. These resources cover environmental, foreign policy, legal, legislative, public health, national security, political, and regulatory aspects of governmental responses to pandemics. This chapter will describe these resources and how to access them so readers can gain a heightened understanding of governmental pandemic policymaking activities.

Keywords: Government Information Resources, Governmental Policymaking, Public Health and Policy, Law, Legislation, and Regulation

The US Government has been concerned with pandemics since at least the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic after World War I killed an estimated 675,000 Americans. The government and other sources have produced a significant documentary corpus quantifying and assessing this event’s epidemiological impact on the US (US Department of Health and Human Services nd; US Public Health Service 1919; Crosby 2003.) There are numerous US Government information resources providing information on governmental responses to pandemics covering multiple legal, regulatory, and policymaking aspects of all the US Government and the multiple agencies involved in pandemic policymaking. These resources cover the executive, judicial, and legislative branches and reflect the complicated and political bureaucratic and jurisdictional factors involved in early twenty-first century federal government epidemiology policymaking (Etheridge 1992; US Department of Homeland Security 2006; US Congress, House Committee on Homeland Security 2009a; US Government Accountability Office 2009).

This chapter will provide a detailed listing of US Government resources on responses to epidemics and pandemics with the vast majority of these being freely accessible on the Internet. It will be broken into three distinct sections covering legal and regulatory resources, executive branch resources, and congressional resources (including congressional support agencies). It also will cover US state governments, international government organizations, and foreign national government information resources.

US Government Legal Resources

Public laws are passed by Congress and signed by the President to fulfill governmental policymaking needs (US Government Printing Office 2009). Laws are passed in numerical order by two-year congressional sessions and are available online from the 104th Congress (1995 to 1996 to the present) at www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/. For instance, the controversial healthcare legislation enacted in 2010 is classified as Public Law 111-148 (referring to it being the 148th public law enacted by the 111th Congress) during 2009-2010 and its short title is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

US GOVERNMENT LEGAL RESOURCES

Legal/Regulatory Resources

Public Laws

US Code

Code of Federal Regulations

Federal Register

List of Sections Affected

Unified Agenda

Regulations.gov

The text of this and other laws contains changes to existing sections of federal law, information about funding various agencies will receive to implement the law’s provisions, and criminal penalties for violating act provisions. It also features dates when certain requirements must be met, the names of agencies implementing these requirements, and reports these agencies are required to file with Congress concerning implementation of these acts. The conclusion of each of these laws includes legislative history information, such as congressional bill number, a report number citation for the congressional committee report describing congressional intent for the legislation, when the legislation was debated in the Congressional Record, including debate transcript and recorded votes, and whether the President made any public statement when signing this legislation into law. These legislative history resources are accessible from 1995-present at www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/ and www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/.

Once laws are passed, they are codified by the US House of Representatives Office of Legal Revision Council into the US Code (USC). This contains the complete text of all US laws broken up into 50 different titles or subject areas. These have been revised completely every six years since 1926 and are updated annually to reflect their current status (US Government Printing Office 2010a). Possible sections of the USC where pandemic-related statutes may be located include Title 21 dealing with food and drugs, and Title 42 dealing with public health and welfare. Within each US Code title there are chapters and sections providing further organizational breakdowns for these laws. For instance, Chapter 6A of Title 42 covers public health service legislation and Section 247d-1 within Title 42 Chapter 6A features the current legal text covering tracking federally purchased influenza vaccine during an influenza pandemic and should be cited as 42 USC 247d-1[US Government Printing Office. 2009. Public and Private Laws: About, 1. <www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/about.html> (accessed February 21, 2011)] [42 USC 247d-1].

Once laws are passed by Congress and signed by the President, federal agencies are charged with drafting regulations to enforce these laws and this field of legal activity is called administrative law. There are several information resources available to track these regulations and their changing status published by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/ contains the complete text of federal regulations. It is broken up into 50 different titles or subject areas and published annually on a rotating basis throughout the year. Title 42 of the CFR covers public health and part 73.3 of this title (cited as 42 CFR 73.3) lists agents and toxins such as botulinum neurotoxins and ricin, which the Department of Health and Human Services has determined have the potential to severely threaten public health and safety. The end of individual CFR sections such as 42 CFR 73.3 features a regulatory history of when these items were first published in the Federal Register that may date back as far as 1936, amendments to that initial listing, and their Federal Register publication dates (Bowers 1990; US Office of Management and Budget nd; US National Archives and Records Administration 2010).

The Federal Register is published Monday through Friday each week, excluding federal holidays, and includes the text of proposed and newly adopted federal regulations, announcements of agency meetings, and the text of presidential executive orders. This publication has been produced since 1936 and is online from 1994 to the present at www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/. Entries are arranged alphabetically by agencies and describe the newly approved or proposed federal regulation including its text, list the US Code citation giving agencies the authority to issue the regulation, including the date the regulation takes effect,...