More on HSPD 21

Over at In Case of Emergency, Jimmy Jazz has completed his review of HSPD 21: Public Health and Medical Preparedness. His series is worth reading, but here's the 30-second version:

• On Biosurveillance, the plan is long on promises but short on deliverables.
• On Countermeasure Distribution, the plan is waaay too optimistic that the local, state, tribal, and federal plans can get coordinated in the timeframe allotted. (That's assuming they can get coordinated at all.)
• On Mass Casualty Care, the plan is great but not doable within the deadlines.
• On Community Resilience, the plan is much too vague, offering little more than some additional training and bland platitudes.
• On Everything Else, the deadlines are ridiculous.
  

Sometimes I think that Community Resilience is the most important, even though it may be the toughest to pull off. Americans have succeeded largely because we've been resilient, always pushing ahead in spite of hardship. Someday we will have to deal with a major catastrophe even larger than 9/11 or Katrina. I wonder if we'll be resilient once again, or if fragility will ruin us.