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Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercises: A Primer for the Classroom and Beyond

  • Karen Wood and Stanley B. Supinski
Published/Copyright: August 6, 2008
Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
From the journal Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Volume 5 Issue 1

Concerns of a pandemic outbreak of influenza have been at the forefront of the homeland security and emergency management communities for the past several years. Until an actual pandemic occurs, the question of whether responsible agencies and their operational preparations can adequately handle a pandemic that impacts every jurisdiction will remain unanswered. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has taken the lead to handle this threat at the federal level, which includes establishing operational plans and developing training. It also includes developing a template for tabletop exercises, Tabletop Exercise for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Local Public Health Agencies, which can serve as a model for every jurisdictional level. The exercise is invaluable for public health planning, but there remains room for improvement: its design neglects some of the broader implications of the planning and coordination required of the first response community.This paper is designed to fit most suitably within emergency management and homeland security curriculum as an educational tool to prepare students for the complex realities of an influenza pandemic and the experience of a tabletop exercise. Beyond the classroom, it brings into focus many pandemic issues that exceed the scope of the DHHS pandemic influenza tabletop, but are of no less importance to public health departments and every other stakeholder agency and organization. Specifically, it discusses the role of exercises in emergency management planning, provides an overview of the present pandemic influenza threat, outlines special planning considerations and assumptions relevant to this threat, and reviews the foundations of existing pandemic influenza planning and response materials. It will also ultimately offer an adapted version of Tabletop Exercises for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Local Public Health Agencies that addresses the problematic planning areas specifically for public safety and emergency management professionals and should facilitate pandemic-related problem solving for all public and private organizations in the absence of a precisely tailored industry-specific exercise.

Keywords: pandemic; exercise; homeland security
Published Online: 2008-8-6

©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.2202/1547-7355.1453
Keywords for this article
pandemic; exercise; homeland security

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Research Article
  2. Emergency Management: Implications from a Strategic Management Perspective
  3. Understanding Public Confidence in Government to Prevent Terrorist Attacks
  4. Assessing and Prioritizing Critical Assets for the United States Army with a Modified RFRM Methodology
  5. Potential Threats of Offshoring Software R&D: An Analysis of U.S.-Based Firms that Use "Common Criteria" Certification
  6. Observed and Perceived Inconsistencies in U.S. Border Inspections
  7. Classification of Phishers
  8. The Contributions of State Attorneys General to Homeland Security Matters
  9. The Economic Impacts of Dirty Bomb Attacks on the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports: Applying the Supply-Driven NIEMO (National Interstate Economic Model)
  10. Collaboration and Homeland Security Preparedness: A Survey of U.S. City Managers
  11. Organizational Transformation: Impact of Redesigning the American Red Cross Disaster Services Human Resource System
  12. Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Lessons from the Experiences of Thirteen Indiana Counties
  13. Cost Minimization and Medical Examinations: The Case of Anthrax
  14. Mass Population Displacement under an Unclear Evacuation Policy during the Israel-Lebanon War 2006
  15. Evacuating Large Urban Areas: Challenges for Emergency Management Policies and Concepts
  16. Planning for Pet Evacuations during Disasters
  17. Evaluating Regional Contra-Flow and Phased Evacuation Strategies for Texas Using a Large-Scale Dynamic Traffic Simulation and Assignment Approach
  18. The Constitutional Roots of All-Hazards Policy, Management, and Law
  19. Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercises: A Primer for the Classroom and Beyond
  20. Longitudinal Evaluation of Food Safety Discussion-Based Exercises: Tool Development and Initial Validation
  21. Defining Terrorists' Information Requirements: The Modified Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (ModIPB) Framework
  22. Simulating the Economic Impacts of a Hypothetical Bio-Terrorist Attack: A Sports Stadium Case
  23. Disaster Management: The Structure, Function, and Significance of Network-Centric Operations
  24. Staff Management in Emergency Evacuation Preparedness and Response
  25. Preparing for the Real Storm during the Calm: A Comparison of the Crisis Preparation Strategies for Pandemic Influenza in China and the U.S.
  26. The Use of Multi-Attribute Methods to Respond to a Nuclear Crisis
  27. Book Review
  28. Review of Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: Towards Disaster Resilient Societies
  29. Review of Understanding Terrorism: Analysis of Sociological and Psychological Aspects
  30. Review of Chronicles of Katrina: Lessons Learned from the Hurricane Katrina Disaster for your Home Preparedness Planning
  31. Review of Hazard Mitigation Investment Decision Making: Organizational Response to Legislative Mandate
  32. Review of Agroterrorism
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  34. Review of Principles of Incident Response and Disaster Recovery
  35. Review of Introduction to Emergency Management
  36. Review of Introduction to Emergency Management, 3rd Edition
  37. Review of Patrolling Cyberspace: Lessons Learned from a Lifetime in Data Security
  38. Review of America's Army: A Model for Interagency Effectiveness
  39. Review of The Culture of Calamity: Disasters and the Making of Modern America
  40. Review of Emergency Management: Principles and Practice for Local Government, Second Edition
  41. Review of Disaster Policy and Politics: Emergency Management and Homeland Security
  42. Review of Biosecurity & Bioterrorism: Containing and Preventing Biological Threats
  43. Review of Maritime Security: An Introduction
  44. Review of The Shock Doctrine; The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
  45. Review of In Their Own Words: Voices of Jihad, Compilation and Commentary
  46. Review of Risking House and Home: Disasters, Cities, Public Policy
  47. Review of The Mind of Jihad
  48. Review of Cyber Security: Economic Strategies and Public Policy Alternatives
  49. Review of Advances in Biological and Chemical Terrorism Countermeasures
  50. Review of The 9/11 Encyclopedia
  51. Review of From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of Peacemaking
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  55. Communication/News
  56. Canine Remote Deployment System for Urban Search and Rescue
  57. Emergency Management Planning as Collaborative Community Work
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  60. Developing a New Curriculum in Sport Security Management
  61. Other
  62. Recent Research in Other Publications -- August 2008
  63. Comment on Cost Minimization and Medical Examinations: The Case of Anthrax
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