Public Health Ethics in Disasters
Ethical questions in public health can be difficult during the best of times, but disasters can mix ethical dilemmas with the need for snap decisions. To get ahead of that dynamic, the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has compiled a disaster ethics overview, guidelines, and resources ranging from decision making to research to vulnerable populations.
EPA Rulemaking Gateway
The Environmental Protection Agency has just launched a new website to keep the public better informed of its rulemaking process from start to finish. Visitors to the site have a multitude of ways to examine rules currently underway—search the site by the rulemaking phase, topic, or even by the group or subject it’s likely to affect.
GAO Report on Disaster Assistance
Disaster assistance for permanent housing following the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes was more likely to benefit homeowners than renters, according to this recently released report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO looked at who got the money, how far it went toward meeting housing needs, and how difficult the application process was to navigate. The office concluded that Congress would need to give states’ guidance on how to more evenly distribute the funds if it wants to better target renters’ needs.
Breakglass.Net
Although billed as a public health-homeland security-crisis communications blog, you can never be sure what useful information will turn up in this thoughtful collection of writings. On any given day, pseudonymous public preparedness advocate Jimmy Jazz might devote the In Case of Emergency blog to social networking, thoughts on the media, or the latest mapping software. Whatever the topic, you’ll find lots of links to good information and an interesting synthesis of the latest news and reports.
The Extraordinaries
What if volunteering was as easy as updating your Facebook status or texting your best friend? The Extraordinaries takes our society’s gnat-like attention span and uses it for good by matching technophiles with short information processing jobs that need a human touch. Although the volunteer-matching site offers many projects, most recently it’s been putting people to work—using their computers or cell phones—tagging pictures from the Haiti earthquake to help identify the dead or missing.