Emergency Preparedness and Response

Lessons on Public Health Preparedness

Don’t Look Up is a story about two astronomers who attempt to caution the world of a comet that is likely to crash on and destroy the planet. While people can know the truth by looking up, they did not believe the two astronomers and seemingly denied science (McKay, 2021). This resulted in inaction due to partisan blindness and extremist politics. The movie, which has received criticism on various grounds, provides significant insights regarding public health and emergency preparedness/response. As evident in the movie, public health and emergency preparedness/response could help people deal with realities facing them and avert a crisis. According to Katz & Banaski (2019), public health and emergency preparedness/response entail thinking about, preparing for, and mobilizing resources to tackle public health emergencies. This process incorporates various activities including comprehensive planning, training, communication, structure building, and capacity building.

Lack of comprehensive planning for public health emergencies can result in catastrophic events. As evident in the movie, the failure by relevant stakeholders to engage in public health and emergency preparedness/response is akin to averting their eyes from realities facing them and the entire public. This implies that public health and emergency preparedness/response is a means through which relevant governmental and non-governmental stakeholders devise measures to prevent and/or deal with emergencies. However, the process of creating suitable public health and emergency preparedness/response plans can be complex because of the different stakeholders involved. As shown in the movie, politics play a crucial role in the formulation of plans on public health and emergency preparedness and response. Politics influences people’s perceptions regarding the realities facing them, which in turn shape public health and emergency preparedness/response measures.

Message to the Public

Despite the criticism it has attracted, Don’t Look Up provides significant lessons to the public regarding public health and emergency preparedness/response. First, the movie shows the public that partial blindness to potential emergencies can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of a society. When the public turns a blind eye to potential emergencies, it inadvertently lessens the levels of public health and emergency preparedness/response. In essence, it is difficult to create and implement plans that prevent or mitigate the impacts of emergencies when the public turns a blind eye to them. This implies that the public has a critical role to play in public health and emergency preparedness/response. The public’s role in this process is to identify potential emergencies and advocate for actions that result in effective emergency preparedness and response.

Secondly, the development and implementation of public health and emergency preparedness/response plans require the involvement of various stakeholders. While the two astronomers in the movie identified a potential emergency, the lack of concerted efforts among stakeholders resulted in inaction. Therefore, the formulation and implementation of such plans require the involvement of all stakeholders given their distinctive roles in public health and emergency preparedness and response. As noted by Katz & Banaski (2019), some of the stakeholders include the private sector, state and local governments, the federal government, academia, and international organizations. As various stakeholders are involved in creating emergency preparedness and response plans, they leverage the expertise and strengths of each other. This contributes to effective collaboration and coordination of activities in the prevention and mitigation of public health risks and other emergencies. When the various stakeholders are not involved, it is difficult to create and implement suitable emergency preparedness plans.