The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate is working with industry to improve security systems – whether at airports, government facilities, border checkpoints, or public spaces like arenas – to work faster and smarter. The second annual Biometric Technology Rally brought together subject matter experts, industry partners, security stakeholders, and volunteers to test new and emerging automated biometric technology systems for high-throughput use cases.
Princeton researchers combined storm surge, sea-level rise, and the predicted increased occurrence and strength in tropical storms and hurricanes to create new maps of flood-hazard possibility along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. They find 100-year floods could become annual occurrences in New England; and happen every 1 to 30 years along the southeast Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shorelines.
In support of the U.S. government’s policy to maintain a stockpile to be able to protect every American from smallpox, Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced a contract award by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the continued supply of ACAM2000® (Smallpox [Vaccinia] Vaccine, Live) into the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.
In June 2019, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in coordination with the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, organized a trilateral exercise aimed at testing the robustness of the Science Advisory Guide for Emergencies (SAGE), a supplemental tool that provides up-to-date scientific and technical support for homeland security threats, emergencies, and major disasters.
As part of the international response to the Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to meet domestic biodefense goals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) will support manufacturing of an investigational Ebola vaccine, V920, from Merck & Co. Inc.
Engineers at the University of California, Riverside are working on a tool that searches real-time text, photo, and video from social media and surveillance cameras alongside data from sensors, like fire detectors and security alarms. In addition to locating and analyzing information, the new tool will also collect it to constantly update databases. With a more integrated and holistic view of the situation, first responders can better allocate their resources.
Outpatient care settings – including federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, urgent care centers, home health and hospice agencies, and primary care provider practices – have a wide range of capabilities that could be used to save lives in an emergency. Medical surge preparedness in outpatient settings has important implications for healthcare system preparedness and healthcare coalitions.
The First Responder Network Authority marked a significant milestone with release of a new Roadmap for the future of FirstNet, the nationwide public safety broadband network. The FirstNet Authority Roadmap builds on the organization’s nationwide engagement with public safety to gather feedback on the most important communications capabilities for first responder missions.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia are deploying a new health surveillance system to help keep people protected from communicable diseases during the annual hajj pilgrimage. For the first time, the Global Centre for Mass Gatherings Medicines of the Saudi Ministry of Health is using the Health Early Warning System (HEWS), which ensures the early detection of and timely response to health threats and emergencies related to mass gatherings.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is awarding more than $6.6 million to fund research into improving disaster resilience. Eleven organizations will receive grants to conduct research into how earthquakes, wind, and fire affect the built environment to inform building designs, codes, and standards to help those structures better withstand such hazards.
