Pandemic flu: closing the gaps: hearing before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local

Original publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O., 2009. LC Number: KF26 .H637 2009a OCLC Number: (OCoLC)475493543 Subject: Influenza -- United States -- Prevention. Excerpt: ... 11 work through issues with the States. I believe we are on the right path. It is too early to tell that it is taking place in all cases, though. Senator P. Dr. Jarris, did you have any comments on that? RYOR ARRIS Dr. J. Yes. I think it is worth questioning the model. The model that the Federal Government will sequester itself and de-velop guidance for the Nation is a model that doesn't work well. There is a certain amount of expertise, whether it is scientific or law enforcement, in the Federal Government. But actually, the peo-ple who implement this guidance are at the State and local levels, and what we fail to appreciate is the expertise in implementation. So a model that will work much better is if Federal, State, and local all work jointly on guidance. Right now, what we do is we play ping-pong. The Federal Government comes out with some-thing, lobs it over the table. We say it doesn't work. We lob it back. We don't have time for that in 14 to 16 weeks. What worked well in this response to date is that we really were working together, information flowing up and down, modifying what each other was doing. Now we seem once again to be flipping back into the old model of the Federal Government will come up with guidance for the fall. It simply won't work. For example, school closure. That is primarily a public and polit-ical decision to close schools. It is not fundamentally a science-based decision. So what we need to do is to work with the mayors, the governors, and those who make the school closures, and the health officials who will make recommendations to them, to truly understand all the issues there so we can do, if you will, a cost-benefit analysis. There is no way that the Federal Government guidance can come out without true involvement of the local and State officials making ...