The anthrax crisis that took place on October 21, 2001, was a very serious pandemic that affected the lives of many Americans within the United States and abroad. The seriousness of a wide spread anthrax attack not only affected the 800,000 employees of the United States Postal Service (USPS), but it affected many people who receive mail on a daily basis. The real threat of the anthrax epidemic occurred on the heel of September 11, 2001 (9/11) so therefore; many Americans felt vulnerable to acts of terrorism. The challenge for the multiple organizations involved during this emergency would be to manage this situation with the fewest casualties possible while also preventing others from becoming infected. The first objective was to discover
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The role of the CDC is to monitor and prevent disease outbreaks, implement disease prevention strategies, and maintain national health statistics, but in the case of the anthrax attack; the CDC was placed in an advisory role only. The information about the anthrax attack poured in swiftly and soon the media attention regarding a possible terrorist attack became the topic of discussion. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was another organization that assisted with the current anthrax situation along with the White House. It was concluded that the incident in Florida was an isolated case and it was not contagious according to HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson (Lundberg, Kirsten, 2003, p. 2) and then President George W. Bush suggested the same …show more content…
During the next phase of operations to manage the situation, a communication was established with liaisons from various organizations to the EPA, CDC, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Establishing vast network of communication, not only among the citizens, but within the organizations themselves, allowed for informational awareness of the current state of the anthrax attack available to the public and it allowed for these organizations to work more closely together in stopping the spread of anthrax. Continued efforts to combat anthrax became an expensive ordeal’ exceeding the original estimate $200 million for advanced technology of the detection of anthrax, cleanup equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE), and communications. There were, of course, complications that arose which continued the spread of anthrax and measures that were established to handle something like this at the USPS level was well beyond the control of the USPS because it is considered an independent
The role of the CDC is to monitor and prevent disease outbreaks, implement disease prevention strategies, and maintain national health statistics, but in the case of the anthrax attack; the CDC was placed in an advisory role only. The information about the anthrax attack poured in swiftly and soon the media attention regarding a possible terrorist attack became the topic of discussion. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was another organization that assisted with the current anthrax situation along with the White House. It was concluded that the incident in Florida was an isolated case and it was not contagious according to HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson (Lundberg, Kirsten, 2003, p. 2) and then President George W. Bush suggested the same …show more content…
During the next phase of operations to manage the situation, a communication was established with liaisons from various organizations to the EPA, CDC, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Establishing vast network of communication, not only among the citizens, but within the organizations themselves, allowed for informational awareness of the current state of the anthrax attack available to the public and it allowed for these organizations to work more closely together in stopping the spread of anthrax. Continued efforts to combat anthrax became an expensive ordeal’ exceeding the original estimate $200 million for advanced technology of the detection of anthrax, cleanup equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE), and communications. There were, of course, complications that arose which continued the spread of anthrax and measures that were established to handle something like this at the USPS level was well beyond the control of the USPS because it is considered an independent