And while we’re not currently at the level of “everybody to the bunker, grab your helmet”, this is an important opportunity to get people informed, he said.Ī fallout shelter sign on a building on East 9th Street in New York. Because of this, disaster preparedness officials look for “teachable moments” like big news events to get their messaging through. One of the biggest challenges is educating the public, which requires sustained communication –– something that’s become nearly impossible given today’s political polarization and short attention spans, Schlegelmilch said. But while the United States has made many advances in nuclear preparedness since the cold war, “some of those have eroded because of funding cuts and attention going elsewhere,” he said.
Jeff Schlegelmilch has been trying to answer this question for years as the head of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, a Columbia University research program that works with government agencies. A couple of weeks ago, nuclear preparedness re-entered headlines when the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was buying a supply of the anti-radiation drug Nplate, though the agency denied it was in response to any specific threat.Īll of this raises the question: are we better prepared today to survive a nuclear blast than we were 60 years ago, when it seemed all we could do was head to the basement and pray? In July, New York mayor Eric Adams’s office published a public service announcement about what to do in case of a blast.
Those fears feel a little more real again amid Vladimir Putin’s repeated nuclear threats.
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