"Drive Thru" Mass Vaccination Drill, Chandler AZ/TOPOFF4

"Drive Thru" Mass Vaccination Drill: Chandler AZ


1,000 free flu shots to be given in 3 hours for drill
http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/1010cr-fludrill1011.html





Chandler health officials are asking residents to roll down their car windows and roll up their sleeves for an emergency terrorism drill that will test the efficiency of mass drive-through vaccinations.

Chandler health officials are asking residents to roll down their car windows and roll up their sleeves for an emergency terrorism drill that will test the efficiency of mass drive-through vaccinations.The first drill of it's kind at Chandler Regional Medical Center will involve 100 hospital personnel administering flu vaccines to adults through car windows, said Kimberly Day, a spokeswoman for Chandler Regional Medical Center.The incentive for patients: free flu vaccines. The goal for health officials: give 1,000 shots in three hours to simulate the need for a mass vaccination in the event of a bio-terrorism attack or naturally-caused outbreak

"Every city state and county government has an emergency operations plan," said said Kerry Cassens, a registered nurse with occupational health with the city. "This is a partnership with Chandler Regional and the city to test our ability to respond should there be a need for mass vaccination."The Oct. 27 flu drill will follow the largest ever nationwide terrorism drill based at Chandler's Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort next week, but the "drive-flu" event is separate from the federal authorities' drill, Cassens said.
The first 1,000 people to enter the vaccine drill will receive free flu vaccines, officials said. Participants age 18 and up can pull into a six-lane drive-through, open the car door or window and fill out a consent form while waiting in line, Cassens said. Then they'll drive up to a nurse and receive a shot in the arm."We encourage people to come out because we want to be tested to the max," Cassens said. "We want this to be a test of our ability to give 1,000 immunizations." The drill will utilize four city paramedics certified for vaccinations and the rest will be hospital personnel, Cassens said.At a previous walk-through version of the drill, participants' average waiting time was five minutes, Cassens said. Mercy Gilbert Medical Center held a smaller version of the clinic last year where they vaccinated 278 people.A flu shot for an uninsured patient normally costs $30 to $40, Day said. Each year, about 200,000 people are hospitalized and 36,000 people die from the flu nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flu season generally runs November through March. The free "Drive Flu" clinic will be held Oct. 27 from 8 to 11 a.m. for adults, or until all flu shots are dispensed at Chandler Regional Medical Center, 475 S. Dobson Road. Enter from Dobson Road at Fairview Drive. Details: (480) 728-5640.

See also:TOPOFF 4 Arizona linked to 9/11 "Truth" Spookerencehttp://www.bloglines.com/blog/ewing2001?id=4081

Posted in June of 2006, warning looking more prescient:

"Coyote Crisis Campaign" http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/340472.shtml

First responders gather for emergency drill(NV)
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7196102&nav=15MV

Tests are all too familiar at UNLV, but Wednesday first responders were the ones taking the exams. More than a dozen emergency agencies, including the Nevada National Guard, came together for a communications drill. (cont..)

Vashon holds island wide emergency drill(WA)
http://www.metrokc.gov/prepare/emergencyinfo/07news/10-10-07_Vashon.aspx

Plan Your Escape Route During Citywide Fire Drill (PA)
http://willdo.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/2007/10/plan_your_escap.html



New TOPOFF4 Details


Largest terrorism drill in Arizona set

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/65360.php


PHOENIX - Arizona authorities may be setting off fictional "dirty bombs" next week to test their response to hypothetical mass casualties and widespread radiological contamination, but they hope the terrorism exercise goes entirely unnoticed by the public.
The exercise, TOPOFF 4, is part of what will be the nation's largest terrorism drill ever and is the fourth in a series of exercises ordered by Congress.

It's designed to hypothetically cripple transportation arteries to test local and national response to a terror attack.
Details from the last national exercise, held in 2005, have yet to be publicly released.
In addition to the "attack" in Tempe at the busy junction of the Loop 101 and 202 freeways, fictional "dirty bombs" will go off at a Cabras power plant in Guam and on the Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore., according to a briefing of the coming exercise obtained by The Associated Press.
Dirty bombs are conventional explosives that include some radioactive material that would cause contamination over a limited area but would not create actual nuclear explosions

Loops 101 and 202 will remain open during the exercise, and nothing actually will be detonated.
Unlike Guam and Oregon, no actual emergency responders will be deployed in the Arizona exercise.
That means the exercise should go completely unnoticed by the public, said Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Leesa Berens Morrison.
She said the three-day exercise, which begins Tuesday, will be the largest terror drill ever in the state.
"We need to make sure that Arizona is as prepared as it can be in the event of a terrorist-type incident or a natural disaster," Morrison said.
"This allows us to exercise our experience, and it allows us to take our planning efforts and see where it's paid off, and see where we need to focus on improvement," she said. "The whole idea is to keep Arizona safe."
Part of the reason for the drill stems from a finding by the 9/11 Commission that U.S. officials failed to show imagination about what types of attacks could occur on American soil, said James Kish, acting assistant administrator for the National Integration Center, which is under the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C.
He said the stress of next week's "attack" will be on how officials at the senior level respond.
"That means that we have to push organizations and people to some pretty hard edges, and as a virtue of pushing people to those heights, we kind of think we're going to see some shortfalls," he said.
"But people out there in America shouldn't be fearful of that. They shouldn't shy away from that," he said. "We should be appreciative of the fact that we're taking on these complex challenges of improving abilities to manage risk, and we're doing it in a controlled environment."
Marcia Barry, administrative director of trauma service at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix and one of many observers of next week's drill, said she will be paying particularly close attention to how her hospital communicates and coordinates with the 16 other hospitals participating in the drill.
"Any time that you have large numbers of patients arriving at a hospital, you stress the system and you have to look at well-organized and highly efficient ways to effectively deliver health care to the public," she said. "These drills are a very important part of making sure our processes are realistic," she said.

US Military Gearing up on Guam
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/us-military-gearing-up-on-guam-03011/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

Future Combat Systems Industry Team Delivers Network Capability to Current Force

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=49798

Boeing [NYSE: BA] and partner Science Applications International Corporation [NYSE: SAI], lead systems integrator for the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, have delivered six additional network integration capability "B-kits" to vehicle integrators BAE Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems and AM General, bringing the total number of B-kits delivered to date to 18. (cont...)