CDC: Be Prepared For Nuclear War
Kevin Felts 01.05.18
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants you to be prepared for nuclear war. Recent tweets by President Trump may have alarmed officials at the CDC. However, in the announcement there was no mention of President Trump or North Korea.
Two generations were raised during the Cold War. From the 1950s to the 1980s we had public service announcements on TV and school teachers would teach students what to do if there were a nuclear strike.
When I started elementary school around 1974, the teacher would stand in front of the class and tell everyone what to do if we saw a mushroom cloud in the distance. We even did duck and cover drills.
For Christmas 2017, my wife and I went to my mom and dads house. While we were there, my dad and I talked about how things have changed over the decades. When my dad was in school during the 1950s and 1960s, he did the same duck and cover drills I had been taught in the 1970s.
The generation born after the collapse of the Soviet Union were not taught those same lessons.
From the CDC – Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation.
While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps. Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness.
For instance, most people don’t realize that sheltering in place for at least 24 hours is crucial to saving lives and reducing exposure to radiation. While federal, state, and local agencies will lead the immediate response efforts, public health will play a key role in responding.
Final Thoughts
In a way I am flabbergasted that a few tweets are causing so many people to have a meltdown. For thirty years, from the 1950s to the 1980s, the world lived with a daily threat of nuclear war.
Then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States and the Soviet Union had the world on edge.
If some tweets are enough to send people into a frenzy, the general public is not unprepared for a standoff like what happened with the United States, Cuba and the Soviet Union.
