What worked best in responding to the coronavirus pandemic? Was it public health plans and preparedness preparations, or just general community paranoia?
See this article that argues for general threat paranoia and technological solutions to becoming prepared for what may come next: “
Is Paranoia the Key to Pandemic Preparedness?”
For the United States, you cannot say that our prior planning and other preparedness activities failed us completely. It is a great example for why competent leadership is a key element in any disaster scenario.
When you don’t execute the previous plans and preparations, you can’t say that they failed.
As for technological solutions, we don’t seem to be at the point where we will allow our penchant for liberty to trump the good that can come from using the benefits of technology.
As I’ve shared in the past, the old phrase of “give me liberty or give me death” can be modified to be a version of having the cake and eating it too. I prefer the phrase “give me liberty and give me death!” You can have both if you ignore science and reject technological solutions that are available.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.
