In preparing for disasters, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is drawing upon research and internal and external models to develop best practices at the local, state, and federal levels for disaster preparedness, response and recovery.  This briefing will explore preliminary data indicating that less than 50 percent of the health and public health workforce may respond to their posts in the event of a disaster involving contamination or contagion. 

DHS will provide a status update on its activities and exercises related to ensuring that a critical infrastructure workforce is available at the time of a disaster, and speakers and panelists will provide an overview of currently available research in this area and discuss a suggested agenda to best determine the impact of this critical variable in emergency preparedness and response across the spectrum of critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) needed during and after an incident.

Preliminary research on the scope of workforce absenteeism was conducted by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), a program within the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York.  The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) will offer its own analyses of the disaster response workforce.