There isn't a single American city, in my estimation, that has sufficient plans for a nuclear terrorist event.
The larger the disaster, the more necessary it is to have the government as the principal driver of recovery.
The problem with most children's hospitals is that they are passive. They are high quality. They are filled with the best doctors. But their function is to wait until kids get sick and get referred in.
When children are hungry, sleepy from a night spent fighting untreated asthma, or hobbled by symptoms of undiagnosed illnesses, they are less likely to do well in school.
There's only so much academic disruption that a young child can deal with before he just can't catch up.
Even the best community organizations and faith-based initiatives and the extraordinary charity of Americans across the country can't carry the brunt of eliminating poverty.
Kids get a lot of lip service in disaster planning, but they tend to get far fewer resources than they need. The mantra of 'children are our most valuable resource' is almost never matched by actual funding.
From a population point of view, it's actually very important that as few people as possible get the flu. People getting the flu is not a private matter. The risk for healthy people is really about your friends and neighbors and fellow travelers.
Very large scale disasters, especially those that have occurred in the developing world, have very long recovery periods.
If a severe pandemic materializes, all of society could pay a heavy price for decades of failing to create a rational system of health care that works for all of us.
Every single administration in American political history has put cronies and pals and donors into political positions. But normally those people become the ambassador to Liechtenstein or the deputy undersecretary of commerce.
Every school should have well-rehearsed emergency response protocols covering a variety of possible scenarios, from fire to armed intruders. Schools should have good lines of communications with local emergency response officials and practice those relationships in drills and special exercises.
The reality is that it's harder to recruit pediatric subspecialists if you're not recruiting them for a children's hospital.
Police officers and firemen are so visible in their daily work, there's no mistaking they're there - and that presence makes people feel secure.
Seven million ship cargo containers come into the United States every year. Five to seven percent only are inspected - five to seven percent.