Expert Answer:Discussion Board Responses

Answer & Explanation:Please follow these instructions:Find the attachment Respond to each post with a FULL Single-space paragraph A reliable reference for each paragraph Respond DO NOT summarize.Very important; you have to include your thoughtsAPA style4 responses in total
week_12_responses.docx

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Find the attachment
Respond to each post with a FULL Single-space paragraph
A reliable reference for each paragraph
Respond DO NOT summarize.
Very important; you have to include your thoughts
APA style
4 responses in total
Course: Foundations in Emergency Management for Disasters and Healthcare
The assignment was:
“Describe the role of the Public Information Officer in media relations and reporting during an
incident. Why is this role so crucial? How can the PIO beneficially utilize the media for Risk
Communication activities during the event? What pre-event activities lead to success in these
relationships?”
Post#1
“
Every state has the mandate to provide the public with timely, consistent, and accurate
information during an incident. The emergency public information provides the media with
timely, accurate information about the severity of the emergency and how to respond to the
matter. Public Information Officers (P.I.Os), together with media agents, work together to
provide instruction and information to the public about the incident. For example, the
earthquake in Haiti incident should have been reported to the public so that healthcare
volunteers could get access to the system and provide their services to victims. They should
offer a P.I.O work area near the emergency place, coordinate with the incident command
officer to establish a media photo location to have a clear picture of the scene. They should
have a media information center for a news briefing, develop a team to respond to media and
public questions.
The role of a P.I.O is crucial because they assist in alerting the public about the hazards
of the incident and provide emergency instruction on how to take precautions and avoid injury.
The notifications should be made as soon as possible through media to prevent further
damage.
The P.I.O should utilize the media to release information on safety instruction to the
public and information relating to the response activities on the site, shelter, road closures,
damages, and medical assessment (Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (ERC), n.d.). The
media should inform the public on the status of the incident, that is, injuries, deaths, damages,
displaced people, and hospital status. For example, in the Three Mile Island nuclear incident,
there were reported communication failures; it is said that people were not aware of what had
happened in the early hours. At the time of the accident, there no preparations for media
communication.”
Post#2
“ The public information officer duties come to communicating the public through multiple
resources like, for example, social media and emergency alert systems to inform the public
about the situation and notifying them about the incident, this also includes updates when
something new changes about the situation. The PIO also provides information to other
agencies and the ICS personnel.
Communication is an essential piece of tool to achieve the EOP objective, and to prevent the
occurrence of mistakes. It is also helping the public involved in the incident to understand the
situation and make them work effectively with the emergency responders. The role of the PIO
is very critical. To transfer a piece of information in the best suitable way for the public,
responders, and other agencies involved in the incident is very important. His absence could
trigger a series of misinformation transfer; This could cause public panic.
In the 20 century, there are very advanced ways of communications that the PIO could use to
convey a message or transfer a piece of information. One advantageous and easy way of
communicating with the public is through social media. Nowadays, the majority of the public
internationally use social media to contact with each other, because it is very cheap and easy
access method. With these technological advances, the public don’t use the newspaper or
magazines to read the news; instead, they use social media. Through social media, PIO could
inform the public about the incident, including what happened, the location of the event, and
what is being done. He also could show the response efforts from the incident site very quickly
and clearly through pictures and videos and share it with the public.
The PIO could prepare before the event by validating a way of communication and test these
ways and spread it to the public so that the audience knows the official accounts and channels
of connection with the PIO to prevent the spread of misleading information from false reports
and channels that can confuse the public. The PIO could also do some exercise with his staff to
see the flow of work and to detect any mistakes and shortages and work to correct them to
prevent errors when the real situation happens.”
Course: International and Humanitarian Disaster Management
The assignment was:
“You are an Emergency Manager in your respective country. A highly infectious influenza strain
has been detected. There is a limited quantity of the vaccine to prevent this particular strain of
influenza. Discuss your plan for distributing this vaccine. Who receives the vaccine and who
does not? How did you come to this conclusion?”
Post#1
“
As an emergency manager, I would most likely prioritize all health personnel, response
personnel, government officials and their families. I would prioritize them because if they or
their family members are too sick to work or die as a result or are busy caring for or grieving
their family, then there is no one to do research on the disease, develop vaccines, treat the ill or
lead the community. As study published in Disaster Management and Response revealed that
of three hundred paramedics that participated in the study, 80% would not work if there was
no vaccine or protective gear (Mackler et al, 2007). If the paramedic were fully protected, 91%
would show up to work but this would then drop to 38% if the paramedic’s immediate family
were not protected (Mackler et al., 2007). Taking this study into account and applying it to all
first responder, health personnel and government officials, I am convinced that since they are
needed to direct an emergency response then they need support to show up. I would distribute
the vaccine at the person’s place of work and allow them to take the vaccine home to their
families to distribute. I would allow this in hopes that the family members are remaining at
home to minimize human contact.
As an emergency manager, I would then focus vaccination of school-aged children ages
5-18. Even if every single child was not able to be immunized, achieving herd immunity in that
school-aged children should be sufficient. I would focus on vaccination of school-aged children
because mathematical models of influenza immunization techniques show that vaccinating
roughly 70% of children greatly reduces transmission in the entire community to under
epidemic levels (Longini & Halloran, 2005). This strategy is very common adopted by different
governments around the world. In Japan during the 1960s-1980, 80% of school children
received an influenza vaccine, which the Japanese epidemiologists could calculate prevented
about 37,000-49,000 elderly adult deaths a year (Longini & Halloran, 2005). By focusing on
school children to vaccinate after first responders and government officials, lowering the
transmission rate of influenza is great.
While the vaccine is in limited supply, not everyone can receive it. Therefore as an
emergency manager who decides who gets immunized, I must decide who doesn’t. Adults
would not be my priority group to immunize as seeing the great reduction in transmission rate
by campaigning school-aged children first; I don’t see adults as being necessary. Therefore, I
would promote behavioral changes for adults to consider in regards to influenza transmission.
Examples would be to work from home, limit human contact, wash your hands, and to wear
face masks and gloves. A study posted by CDC predicts that transmission rates and death rates
could decrease up to 50% by limiting the contact rate between healthy and sick individuals
(Haber et al., 2007). Therefore educating prevention methods for adults, can reduce
transmission of disease without the use of vaccines.
Another group I would not prioritize would be those already infected and showing mild
to severe symptoms. Vaccinating them at this point would be unnecessary, as they would need
to receive treatment. Therefore, educating the public about symptoms and treatment methods
early on is important so when they feel sick then they will go to the doctor immediately.
In an ideal world, if a highly infectious influenza strain were detected in a population, as
an emergency manager I would want the ability and resources to vaccinate everyone. However,
that is not always possible. Therefore, prioritizing first responder, medical personnel,
government officials and their families would have an impact on response ability and epidemic
management. Prioritizing school-aged children would be a secondary priority because
epidemiological studies published it would drastically reduce transmission rate in the
community. Finally, I would also prioritize educating and advocating the remainder of the public
to limit human contact and the use of Personal Protected Equipment until more vaccines are
available or the influenza strain dies out.”
Post#2
“
After emergence, an influenza virus spreads very fast since individuals are not immune
to the virus, and, sometimes, a vaccine to provide immediate protection may not be widely
accessible. The spreading of a widespread influenza virus can happen in numerous disease
‘waves’ split by a number of months. During its spread, many people may require medical care
across the affected areas. Schools, workplaces, childcare centers, as well as other places where
there are mass gatherings may be closed for some time. The virus can be spread through
sneezes, contaminated hands, and even coughs. In this paper, I discuss what I would do to
prevent an influenza strain in my country if a highly infectious influenza strain is detected, and
the amount of vaccine is limited.
Generally, there is no guaranteed technique of obstructing the transmission of the virus
in the event of an influenza pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak. Even though a vaccine may not
be accessible at first, certain vaccines can be used to slow down the spread of the influenza
virus. Once a vaccine is accessible, particular people and groups should be vaccinated first.
Mass vaccination requires individuals to offer medical information regarding their other family
members in order to understand which people should be given first priority (World Health
Organization, 2004). In this case, where there is a limited vaccine to work with, I would first
administer it to people who are already infected with the virus to ensure that they do not
spread it further. Next, I would consider individuals who have not received the vaccine before
because this means that their immune system is low and cannot fight the disease. It is also
important to consider those people who are more vulnerable to the disease. This includes
people who are terminally ill, the elderly, and whose immune system is low and whose bodies
cannot resist or survive the disease. This would be key in preventing or reducing hospital
admissions as well as deaths (Ropero-Álvarez et al., 2012). Worth mentioning, health care
providers should be vaccinated in order to maintain key services because, without them, health
care services will come to a halt.
Healthy people who have been living healthy lives will not receive the vaccine because
their bodies have substantial immunity, and hence, they can fight the virus. This includes
healthy children as well as adults who are generally healthy or those who have received the
vaccine before. These individuals can only be vaccinated if the vaccine is adequate to cater for
all people in the country (World Health Organization, 2004). However, because, in our case we
are working will limited vaccine supply, this healthy population will be left to continue with
their daily activities. To protect them from getting infected, they will have to take various
precautions while undertaking their daily activities, including washing their hand using soap and
water regularly, wear face masks if interacting with infected people and when going to crowded
areas, and avoid any touch on the mouth, eyes, or even ears with bare hands. If possible, these
people should avoid completely going to crowded areas and stay home until everything gets
back to normal.
Influenza pandemics mostly happen suddenly and are, in most cases, unforeseen and
inevitable. Influenza antiviral drugs and vaccines are crucial elements that make up an
extensive pandemic response, which also involves makes arrangements for antibiotic supplies
as well as other healthcare resources. Nevertheless, the reality now is the majority of countries
lack or have extremely limited supplies. In such situations, emergency management teams are
forced to make hard decisions pertaining to which individuals should be given priority when
vaccines are limited.”
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