Introduction
Florida has one of the largest defense and homeland security industries across the country. Its areas of the industry have wide-reaching expertise, including cybersecurity, biometrics, and aviation. Public health is crucial for any state, and proper preparation for any crisis is one of the main focuses of the state’s homeland security. This paper explores the preparation for public health crises as stipulated in Florida’s HS strategic plan. It will also include a critique of Florida’s strategic plan and its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the gaps, shortfalls, and best practices. Stakeholder collaborations such as FEMA should be considered in any state’s homeland security strategic plan, and this paper explores how Florida has approached such collaborations.
Strategic Planning Requirements for Florida Home Security Organization
The Florida Home Security organization diligently works toward exchanging and accessing critical classified information with other agencies to ensure state and national security. The organization can expeditiously respond to any threat information while enhancing the state’s vulnerability assessment and investigation. Strategic planning is central to the organization’s success, and the Florida HS has specific requirements for it (Cooney et al., 2011). An organization’s mission is one of these requirements. In the Florida HS organization, this includes addressing the threat posed on critical infrastructures and the intention to efficiently and effectively strengthen the prevention and preparedness efforts for terrorist attacks, major disasters, and any other emergencies by developing the proper capabilities to respond to such incidents. Another requirement is close cooperation between the community, the government, and the private sector at all levels. This is necessary to protect assets and infrastructures that are the basis of daily life.
Strategic Planning for Public Health Crisis
Public health is critical for any state, and the primary focus of Florida Public Health is to reduce illness, injury, and loss of life to residents and individuals visiting Florida due to disasters. This can be achieved through developing and sustaining critical capabilities that enhance the state’s ability to prevent, respond and recover from all types of disasters (Nelson et al., 2007). Public health has been a part of Florida Homeland Security, implying its inclusion in the organization’s strategic planning. One of the ways of including public health crisis preparedness in the organization’s strategic planning is ensuring improvements in local hospitals’ security, laboratory capacities, and emergency planning are properly supported.
The HS organization develops solid networking and interagency relations by improving communications technology and investing in the participation of other groups. The DHS is the lead agency tasked with the prevention of and response to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive attacks. However, it also focuses on responding to public-health tragedies. The Florida HS has the Office of Health Affairs which serves as the organization’s main authority for all health and medical issues. The organization’s strategic planning includes implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. Reports show that since 9/11, the DHS in Florida has shown progress in implementing mechanisms for the prevention and preparation of varied threats. Among these reports, some findings are related to public health.
For instance, in 2011, the HS in Florida established the initial formalized sharing of public health and intelligence information with other state partners. The organization also conducted varied information sharing and response exercises that involved different state and local officers. The HS in Florida sets organizational objectives by establishing strategic improvements in the community health and workforce development plans. Its strategic plan also involves identifying the performance indicators and stipulating the process of measuring the progress towards achieving public health crisis preparedness objectives.
Florida’s Strategic Plan and Response to Covid-19 Pandemic
Since the initial introduction of Covid-19 into Florida, the state has assumed a strategic and systematic approach to combat its spread. The onset of the virus led to the placement of Florida in a State of Emergency, which allowed the Governor and the experts the flexibility to take the necessary decisive actions for proper preparation and response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Florida’s most high-risk and vulnerable populations were protected, including prohibiting visitors from nursing homes, assisted living, and long-term care facilities. One of the main strategic steps taken by the state was avoiding a “one size fits all” approach toward mitigating the threat of Covid-19. Cooperation with local governments in areas where the virus was proliferated helped ensure limited physical movement.
The Governor of Florida at the time, DeSantis, implemented state-wide mitigation efforts while preserving the health system’s capacity. An unnecessary surgical procedure was prohibited, and this step helped to free up hospital bed capacity. Individuals traveling to Florida were required to isolate themselves for14 days upon entry into the state. The testing programs in Florida were extended to vulnerable populations, first responders, and at-risk health care workers. Florida working with the National Guard, deployed mobile testing teams to get samples from nursing homes. Pharmacies across the state also began to offer on-site testing for eligible individuals.
While Florida put in place different plans to mitigate the risks posed by Covid-19 and ensure a proper state-wide response, there were areas of shortfalls in which the state would have done better. Florida set out to protect vulnerable populations, health care workers at risk, and first responders (Merrill et al., 2008). However, it failed to protect incarcerated individuals from the pandemic. This was one of the areas that showed serious gaps in terms of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Another area with serious shortfalls and gaps was the management of the beaches, especially when the Covid numbers began to increase. Florida beaches remained open even as the Covid cases and fatalities rose. Thousands of people continued to flock to church with the state’s seniors went ahead and played golf.
The state leadership also failed by castigating outsiders, blaming New Yorkers for spreading the virus in Florida. The Governor dispatched the National Guard to the airports to intercept individuals coming into Florida from New York. The response of the state leadership to the Covid-19 pandemic was not guided by science but merely by the leaders’ gut. Another area that shows serious gaps in response to the pandemic was the third-party distribution scheme for equipment such as ventilators, gloves, gowns, and N95 masks.
The outbreak of the Omicron variant was another challenge for Florida, and specific gaps were identified. The Governor asked the asymptomatic healthy people not to get tested, mentioning that if one had no symptoms, they were not a case (Smith, 2022). This is a baseless suggestion since this Covid variant is the same as the others and spreads despite vaccination or the absence of symptoms. The Governor made this suggestion to prevent an increased overload of the testing system, fully displaying the administration’s failures in the testing infrastructure. Testing sites became inaccessible to many in Florida as schools and work opened. Recent investigations in the state revealed that over one million rapid Covid-19 tests expired while they sat unused in the warehouse. The state leadership failed to encourage the testing of COVID-19 TO prevent its spread, push for vaccination and ensure the enforcement of federal mandates. Other areas that the state failed in responding to the pandemic included poor communication between officials regarding shutdown measures.
Even though the existence of different gaps and several shortfalls in Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the state’s best practices during this time was the high level of cooperation between different departments and officials (Danos & Hancock, 2009). This was a win for such an electorally fractious state. The positive collaboration between counties was an additional plus for the state towards the appropriate response to the pandemic. Florida has had intergovernmental responses to emergencies such as hurricanes, and this contributed to Covid-19 sustainment and involvement of the entire state.
Collaboration with Stakeholders
Stakeholder collaboration during a pandemic such as Covid-19 is one of the best practices for proper response and containment. Florida’s homeland security ensures that collaborations with stakeholders such as FEMA, state public, DHS, and private sectors are included in its strategic planning. One of the reasons for stakeholder collaboration is the access to sufficient resources to respond to situations of emergency (CDC, 2011). The organization’s strategic planning includes the involvement of the DHS in building a ready and resilient state. This comprises sufficient information sharing, provision of grants, plans, and training of the homeland security partners to facilitate the rebuilding and proper recovery of the Gulf Coast.
The HS in Florida also has a solid private sector engagement with a mission to ensure the critical infrastructure owners in the private sector and decision-makers are well-prepared with information and intelligence to meet the desired outcomes. This collaboration was especially significant during the Covid-19 pandemic when the private sector infrastructure owners chipped in towards the state containment process and the provision of supplies. The organization also ensures that necessary critical information is shared with the private sector to ensure proper support is rendered. Such collaborations enhance the resilience of the state’s infrastructure, ensuring preparedness in any crises or emergencies. While these stakeholder collaborations benefit Florida’s homeland security organization, several barriers exist. Such include mistrust between the stakeholders, prevention of proper information sharing, and misinformation. Some of the steps to eliminate these barriers include the establishment of a memorandum of understanding between these stakeholders. This establishes formal coordination agreements and points out the mechanisms that will be used to share information.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Florida has one of the largest homeland security industries across the country. This presents different suggestions regarding the state and how it handles critical matters such as responding to the public health crisis. This paper has discussed the strategic planning of Florida’s homeland security organization and how the aspect of public health is incorporated into this strategic planning. The department of public health and homeland security work closely in different ways across the different states in the country. In Florida, public health is at the center of the HS strategic planning, especially given the just wearing off Covid-19 pandemic. The state leadership played its role in responding to the public health crisis. Even so, some of the recommendations may include future consideration of science in such situations and not just the leaders’ gut feeling.
The organization has collaborated with other major stakeholders in public health, including the DHS, FEMA, and state public and private sectors. Such collaborations are a major part of homeland security strategic planning and serve as a plus in public health crisis preparedness. More distinct relationships with these stakeholders are necessary to ensure the public health of Florida is more secure in future crises or emergencies.
References
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Nelson, C., Lurie, N. & Wasserman, J. (2007). Assessing public health emergency preparedness: Concepts, tools, and challenges. Annual Review of Public Health, 28(1), 1-18.
Smith, E. (2022). Omicron: Both a Federal and Florida Failure. Retrieved 7 September 2022, from https://www.floridapoliticalreview.com/omicron-both-a-federal-and-florida-failure/
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