Navigating the Storm: Report and Recommendations from the Atlantic Storm Exercise.

BIOSECURITY AND BIOTERRORISM: BIODEFENSE STRATEGY, PRACTICE, AND SCIENCE
Volume 3, Number 3, 2005
©Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
After-Action Report
Navigating the Storm: Report and Recommendations
from the Atlantic StormExercise
BRADLEY T. SMITH, THOMAS V. INGLESBY, ESTHER BRIMMER, LUCIANA BORIO, CRYSTAL FRANCO, GIGI KWIK GRONVALL, BRADLEY KRAMER, BETH MALDIN, JENNIFER B. NUZZO, ARI SCHULER, SCOTT STERN, DONALD A. HENDERS, RANDALL J. LARSEN, DANIEL S. HAMILTON, and TARA O’TOOLE

Atlantic Stormwas a tabletop exercise simulating a series of bioterrorism attacks on the transatlantic community. The exercise occurred on January 14, 2005, in Washington, DC, and was organized and convened by the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC, the Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins University, and the Transatlantic Biosecurity Network. Atlantic Stormportrayed a summit meeting of presidents, prime ministers, and other international leaders from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in which they responded to a campaign of bioterrorist attacks in several countries. The summit principals, who were all current or former senior government leaders, were challenged to address issues such as attaining situational awareness in the wake of a bioattack, coping with scarcity of critical medical resources such as vaccine, deciding how to manage the movement of people across borders, and communicating with their publics. Atlantic Stormillustrated that much might be done in advance to minimize the illness and death, as well as the social, economic, and political disruption, that could be caused by an international epidemic, be it natural or the result of a bioterrorist attack. These lessons are especially timely given the growing concerns over the possibility of an avian in- fluenza pandemic that would require an international response. However, international leaders can- not create the necessary response systems in the midst of a crisis. Medical, public health, and diplomatic response systems and critical medical resources (e.g., medicines and vaccines) must be in place before a bioattack occurs or a pandemic emerges.

read the full report at the link above.