Three department of defense‐funded public health approaches to reduce military suicide

AbstractThe US Department of Defense continues to deploy military assets for disaster relief and humanitarian actions around the world. These missions, carried out through geographically located Combatant Commands, represent an evolving role the US military is taking in health diplomacy, designed to enhance disaster preparedness and response capability. Oceania is a unique case, with most island nations experiencing “acute-on-chronic” environmental stresses defined by acute disaster events on top of the consequences of climate change. In all Pacific Island nation-states and territories, the symptoms of this process are seen in both short- and long-term health concerns and a deteriorating public health infrastructure. These factors tend to build on each other. To date, the US military's response to Oceania primarily has been to provide short-term humanitarian projects as part of Pacific Command humanitarian civic assistance missions, such as the annual Pacific Partnership, without necessarily improving local capacity or leaving behind relevant risk-reduction strategies. This report describes the assessment and implications on public health of large-scale humanitarian missions conducted by the US Navy in Oceania. Future opportunities will require the Department of Defense and its Combatant Commands to show meaningful strategies to implement ongoing, long-term, humanitarian activities that will build sustainable, host nation health system capacity and partnerships. This report recommends a community-centric approach that would better assist island nations in reducing disaster risk throughout the traditional disaster management cycle and defines a potential and crucial role of Department of Defense's assets and resources to be a more meaningful partner in disaster risk reduction and community capacity building.ReavesEJ,TerminiM,BurkleFMJr.Reshaping US Navy Pacific response in mitigating disaster risk in South Pacific Island nations: adopting community-based disaster cycle management.Prehosp Disaster Med.2014;29(1):1-9.

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Preparing for SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines in US Immigrant Communities: Strategies for Allocation, Distribution, and Communication

American Journal of Public Health ◽

10.2105/ajph.2020.306047 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. e1-e5

Author(s):

Eva H. Clark ◽

Karla Fredricks ◽

Laila Woc-Colburn ◽

Maria Elena Bottazzi ◽

Jill Weatherhead

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Department Of Defense ◽

Population Level ◽

The United States ◽

Immigrant Communities ◽

Private Partnership ◽

The Us ◽

Us Government ◽

Control And Prevention

Widely administered efficacious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines are the safest and most efficient way to achieve individual- and population-level immunity, making SARS-CoV-2 vaccination the most viable strategy for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States. To this end, the US government has invested more than $10 billion in “Operation Warp Speed,” a public-private partnership including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the US Department of Defense. Operation Warp Speed funded the development of several SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and aimed to deliver 300 million doses of a vaccine by the ambitious date of January 2021. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 22, 2020: e1–e5. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306047 )

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