Mordern Education

  The value proposition of the Global Health Security Index Abstract Infectious disease outbreaks pose major threats to human health and security. Countries with robust capacities for preventing, detecting and responding to outbreaks can avert many of the social, political, economic and health system costs of such crises. The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index)—the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries—recently found that no country is sufficiently prepared for epidemics or pandemics. The GHS Index can help health security stakeholders identify areas of weakness, as well as opportunities to collaborate across sectors, collectively strengthen health systems and achieve shared public health goals. Some scholars have recently offered constructive critiques of the GHS Index’s approach to scoring and ranking countries; its weighting of select indicators; its emphasis on transparency; its focus on biosecurity...

   Biological Threats The tabletop scenario exercises act as centerpieces to the project and draw on a variety of internationally-recognized threats and concerns regarding global health security. These include bioterrorism, protection of civilians and military forces, medical countermeasure stockpiling, risk communication, border closures, and emerging infectious diseases, among other topics.The Center aims to strengthen global health security by preparing NATO for biological attacks. The Boosting NATO Resilience to Biological Threats Project will first examine current NATO preparedness for biological threats. Next, the team will prepare and conduct a series of tabletop scenario exercises for NATO leadership, aiming to simulate outbreak response management and promote reflection on current levels of NATO preparedness for biological threats. Finally, the team will continue to engage with NATO as they strengthen preparedness against biological threats. Ultimately, the project te...

  Equity in Vaccination: A Plan to Work with Communities of Color Toward COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond introduction The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had tragic and disproportionate adverse effects on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities across the United States. The number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths related to this disease is significantly higher in these groups. Additionally, members of BIPOC communities are among those hit the hardest by the economic and social upheavals caused by the pandemic. As the COVID-19 vaccination campaign begins, it is critical that vaccines be delivered fairly and equitably—so that everyone has the same level of access to this lifesaving technology. Just as pressing is the need to address longstanding disparities that have created the unequal situation that BIPOC communities are now in. This plan provides elected and appointed officials with the tools to create, implement, and support a vaccination ca...

zika virus News media plays a large role in the information the public receives during an infectious disease outbreak, and may influence public knowledge and perceptions of risk. This study analyzed and described the content of U.S. news media coverage of Zika virus and Zika response during 2016. A random selection of 800 Zika‐related news stories from 25 print and television news sources was analyzed. The study examined 24 different messages that appeared in news media articles and characterized them using theories of risk perception as messages with characteristics that could increase perception of risk (risk‐elevating messages;  n  = 14), messages that could decrease perception of risk (risk‐minimizing messages;  n  = 8), or messages about travel or testing guidance ( n  = 2). Overall, 96% of news stories in the study sample contained at least one or more risk‐elevating message(s) and 61% contained risk‐minimizing message(s). The frequency of many messages ch...