ABSTRACT
The agenda of this research was to investigate how to mitigate the spread of coronaviruses by rapidly establishing an ultra-cold supply chain of vaccines. Data analysis was conducted by linear regression utilizing a dataset publicly available from the Israel Ministry of Health regarding the daily rates of people vaccinated, tested, hospitalized, etc., since the start of the pandemic. The data provide statistical evidence for the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccines in diminishing a wide variety of disease factors, such as the number of patients who were lightly, moderately, or severely sick, and daily deaths, as well as the rate of spread (R-ratio) and number/percentage of people infected. Insightfully, the data corroborate how the first and second doses of the vaccines were able to decrease the wave of COVID-19, which hit Israel in January 2021, while the booster third dose was able to diminish a subsequent COVID-19 wave occurring in Israel in July 2021.
ABSTRACT
This paper uses Endsley's three-level model of situational awareness to analyse the challenges faced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when coordinating the relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria made landfall. Most obviously, obtaining data about the impacted area was highly challenging, making it much harder to comprehend the magnitude of the event. In turn, this made it difficult to know where to focus recovery efforts as the event unfolded. The situation was further exacerbated by Puerto Rico's remote location with respect to the US mainland, and the fact that FEMA was not logistically prepared for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria to spread its resources so thin. The paper concludes that for US disaster responses to be successful, all levels of government and the private sector should pool resources in a complementary manner in order to streamline supply chain and inventory management practices.
Subject(s)
Cyclonic Storms , Disaster Planning , Awareness , Disasters , Puerto RicoABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Medical Corps developed a model of airborne field hospital. This model was structured to deal with disaster settings, requiring self-sufficiency, innovation and flexible operative mode in the setup of large margins of uncertainty regarding the disaster environment. The current study is aimed to critically analyze the experience, gathered in ten such missions worldwide. METHODS: Interviews with physicians who actively participated in the missions from 1988 until 2015 as chief medical officers combined with literature review of principal medical and auxiliary publications in order to assess and integrate information about the assembly of these missions. RESULTS: A body of knowledge was accumulated over the years by the IDF Medical Corps from deploying numerous relief missions to both natural (earthquake, typhoon, and tsunami), and man-made disasters, occurring in nine countries (Armenia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Turkey, India, Haiti, Japan, Philippines, and Nepal). This study shows an evolutionary pattern with improvements implemented from one mission to the other, with special adaptations (creativity and improvisation) to accommodate logistics barriers. CONCLUSION: The principals and operative function for deploying medical relief system, proposed over 20 years ago, were challenged and validated in the subsequent missions of IDF outlined in the current study. These principals, with the advantage of the military infrastructure and the expertise of drafted civilian medical professionals enable the rapid assembly and allocation of highly competent medical facilities in disaster settings. This structure model is to large extent self-sufficient with a substantial operative flexibility that permits early deployment upon request while the disaster assessment and definition of needs are preliminary.
