# 6795
For the tenth year in a row, the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), has produced a comprehensive report on the the level of preparedness for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
You can find, and compare progress, from my coverage of earlier editions of this report:
TFAH: 2011 Ready or Not Report
TFAH Ready Or Not Report: 2010
TFAH: Ready Or Not 2009
From today’s Press Release:
Ready or Not?
Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism
December 2012
In the 10th annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report, 35 states and Washington, D.C. scored a six or lower on 10 key indicators of public health preparedness.
The report found that while there has been significant progress toward improving public health preparedness over the past 10 years, particularly in core capabilities, there continue to be persistent gaps in the country's ability to respond to health emergencies, ranging from bioterrorist threats to serious disease outbreaks to extreme weather events.
In the report, Kansas and Montana scored lowest - three out of 10 - and Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin scored highest - eight out of 10.
"In the past decade, there have been a series of significant health emergencies, including extreme weather events, a flu pandemic and foodborne outbreaks," said Jeffrey Levi, PhD, executive director of TFAH. "But, for some reason, as a country, we haven't learned that we need to bolster and maintain a consistent level of health emergency preparedness. Investments made after September 11th, the anthrax attacks and Hurricane Katrina led to dramatic improvements, but now budget cuts and complacency are the biggest threats we face."
You can download the entire 76-page report here. Each state is ranked based on ten preparedness criteria. A rating of 10 is the highest, although no state exceeded an 8.
The report, which is worth reading in its entirety, contains these key findings:
You’ll find an interactive map, with links to each individual state’s report at :
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