Need JT, Mothershead JL. Strategic National Stockpile program: implications for military medicine. Mil Med. 2006 Aug;171(8):698-702. The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) program. managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health and Human Services. is designed to deliver critical medical resources to the site of a national emergency. A recent interagency agreement between the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that military medical treatment facility commanders should be actively engaged in cooperative planning with local and state public health officials. so that reception. storage, distribution , and dispensing of SNS materials as a consequence of a n actual event could occur without disruption or delay. This article describes the SNS program and discusses issues of relevance to medical treatment facility commanders and Department of Defense medical planners and logisticians.
Comment: The National Medical Stockpile in Australia has been similarly developed by the civilian Department of Health and Ageing . Further discussions between Defence and the jurisdictions on its deployment at a State level are required.
Ackermann D, Chapman S, Leask J. Media coverage of anthrax vaccination refusal by Australian Defence Force personnel. Vaccine. 2004 Dec 2;23(3):411-7.
BACKGROUND: During February 2003 a number of Australian sailors were returned home from their employment to the Persian Gulf after refusing anthrax vaccination. This paper examines the media coverage of this episode as a case study in how controversies about vaccine safety escalate.
METHODS: Frame analysis of articles from major Australian newspapers (n=83) and transcripts of radio and television news and current affairs programs (n=22) to identify the main supportive and oppositional themes used in reportage and media debate.
FINDINGS: Initially, the major news frames were supportive of the vaccine ref using soldiers, and conveyed a sense of distrust of the government ‘s actions. These initial themes were rapidly re-framed and new dominant discourses appeared. First. sailors went from brave whistle blowers to being portrayed as deserters and cowards. Second. proponents shifted from their portrayal as faceless regulators to personal risk takers embodied in a well-respected Major General having the vaccine. Third, the voluntary nature of the vaccine was emphasised, thus dousing the flames of implied coercion. CONCLUSION: Marked shifts in the representation of vaccine opponents and proponents possibly contributed to the rapid diminishment of media interest in the story.
Comment: For all those involved , this was an interesting episode in mwwging risk and getting clear messages across.
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