Choice Review
The answer to the title's question is an ambivalent "maybe," and is contingent on many "ifs." Rosner (Columbia) and Markowitz (John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center) direct their study's findings at public officials. They interviewed many of these officials in the aftermaths of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent anthrax cases and smallpox campaign. The Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005 would have been a logical addition had it occurred three years earlier. Preparedness is the key concept, and that, in turn, hinges on a proper public health infrastructure at all levels--not only the physical infrastructure but also the logistics of response. Satisfactory funding is an obvious necessity, as is effective leadership in time of crisis. This book provides an excellent overview of the country's strengths and weaknesses for coping with unsettling disasters as they affect public health. It is a preliminary blueprint that the US must adhere to and improve upon if human and material sacrifices are to be minimized with future occurrences. Optimists might even argue that preparedness spells prevention. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. M. Kroger emeritus, Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus
Library Journal Review
Written by distinguished scholars Rosner (public health & history, Columbia Univ.) and Markowitz (history, John Jay Coll., CUNY Graduate Ctr.) and copublished by the respected Milbank Memorial Fund, Are We Ready? documents the public health response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the transformation of public health agencies in the tragedy's aftermath. Although firefighters are the best-recalled faces of 9/11, public health officers at all levels of government responded immediately, dealing with issues such as the control of rats fleeing damaged buildings and disposal of contaminated food from restaurants in blockaded areas. State and local public health personnel and facilities, reeling from years of budget cuts, were further challenged when threats of bioterrorism reached the press. Oral histories from state, local, and Centers for Disease Control staff and administrators who struggled through these crises yield important lessons, including the crucial role of mental health services and the urgent necessity for improved coordination of agencies at all levels. Completed before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and before that department's infamous Hurricane Katrina response, this book may be part of a saga still in process, but medical and academic libraries will find it a useful addition.-Kathy Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.