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....June 9, 2:31 PM |
| Bioterror Drill Preparing Queens For The Worst
By Jeff Feinman As fears of anthrax tore through the country in late 2001, cities were put on alert that a biological or chemical attack could be just as deadly - if not more so - than an act of violence at the hands of a terrorist.
In New York, the Office of Emergency Management stepped up its plans and last week responded to thousands of patients suffering from a malicious outbreak of anthrax in a two-night terror drill designed to test Queens’ response to a massive biological or chemical threat. Volunteers flooded into Hillcrest High School in order to take part in PODEX, a biological terror reaction drill by the OEM. Approximately 100 exercise participants were tapped to aid the distribution of medication, while volunteers numbering in the thousands acted as patients with fictional symptoms. “I hope that we never have to do any of this for real, but it is important to be prepared for it,” OEM Commissioner Joseph F. Bruno said June 2, the second night of the drill. The drill was held in four Points of Dispensing, or PoDs, as OEM officials called them. Though only four PoDs were opened - in Jamaica, Rego Park, Kew Gardens and Hollis - for the drill, the OEM says that up to 204 distribution points could be opened in an emergency. Outbreak The two-day drill began Wednesday and continued Thursday night, kicking off when city health monitoring equipment “discovered” anthrax in the borough. On the first day of the drill, the OEM requested medical supplies from the federal government and training was held for PoD supervisors. The second day was when the system was put to the test as mock distribution points were set up, along with proper security, public information, and transportation issues that would possibly arise in an emergency event. Highland Avenue, the street on which the Hillcrest High School is located, was fully stocked with emergency response vehicles, police, and an enormous line of exercise volunteers, which stretched down the avenue. Handling The Sick After waiting outside for nearly two hours, volunteers filed into the four-part facility set up in the school’s gymnasium. The four parts included triage, medical evaluation, dispensing and an in-house pharmacy. Given slips of paper with specific roles to play and a number of different symptoms, volunteers were first diagnosed in triage and then given the proper medication from facility workers. Patient roles were given fully at random, with old men portraying 2-year-old girls and women acting as older men. In addition, volunteer patients were told to act out different emotions in order to train facility workers to handle a panic situation. “In a real situation, emotions will be high, and we are training the best we can for that,” said Bruno. Part of the Solution Volunteer patients got involved with the drill in a number of ways. Fireman Nelson Roman was recruited by the fire department, but he had not known what he was in for. “They told us that it was going to be a bio-terror medication dispersal drill, but I didn’t know the magnitude of it,” said Roman, who portrayed a young child as well as a family member. “I didn’t think so many cops and paramedics would be taking part.” Many of the exercise participants had backgrounds in health care and some have taken part in previous exercises. An orthopedic surgeon, who did not disclose his name, served as a medical evaluator and said that this is his second time participating in the exercise. The surgeon noted that he has seen improvement in the program. “It’s important for us to keep doing it over and over again to work out the bugs, but we’re responding quicker than last time,” he said. |
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