# 496
This week, NPR's Morning Edition has been running a series of interviews with Stephen Flynn, author of The Edge of Disaster, a book about how unprepared we are as a nation to face a host of disasters, including a pandemic.
Yesterday's edition was on how hospitals would be unable to cope with the surge of patients during a pandemic flu outbreak. It is worth a listen.
The audio can be found here.
Today, the government responded to this series, and an official from the Homeland Security Department, George Foresman, addressed these concerns. His response wasn't exactly comforting.
Mr. Foresman addresses a number of threats in this interview, including terrorism and earthquakes. His pandemic comments come in the second half. While there were some attempts to put the best face on our level of preparedness, for the most part, this was a pretty straight shooting interview.
To his credit, Mr. Foresman did not try to diminish the severity of the threats facing our nation. He didn't try to assure the audience that all would be taken care of by FEMA, or DHS. Instead, he told the audience that they would have to accept the idea that a `a different standard of care' would become the norm. And that during a pandemic, many people would likely not receive hospital care at all.
It is, as he says, the `nature of a disaster'. And he is correct.
He also stated that people needed to lower their expectations during a disaster. And that citizens needed to be ready for a crisis.
None of this is new, or startling. Long time readers of this blog have heard me speak of these sorts of problems for more than a year. And many others have addressed them, too. But it is sobering to hear it from a government official.
This interview may be heard here.
Both interviews run about 7 or 8 minutes, and are well worth your time.
For those interested in other threats discussed by Mr. Flynn, there are links on the NPR webpage for the earlier segments.
