The Army has been training health professionals to deal with nuclear incidents, as well as chemical and biological, for decades. I know the basics of how to set up a triage and decontamination center in case of such an event.
I would hope that every hospital has a couple of people on staff who have taken the training.
I’m not certain of the CDC’s motives with this particular event, but giving advice for disaster preparedness is nothing new for them. The CDC created the zombie apocalypse survival guide (yes, this is a real thing) several years ago for the purpose of teaching people in a lighthearted fashion how to prepare for and survive a disaster.
It is open to the public via webcast, one hour long on Jan 16. I plan on watching.
This article is just a way of going after someone, not reality.
When I was with the Air Force and later the pentagon, I used to oversee exercises involving decon from the start time of the contamination till safe. Whether it was an accident like a simple broken arrow caused by a cracked device, to a full blown attack, is a far separated need.
A decon station requires a lot of space, cleaning water, storage for food, water and living capacity, and then separation to a clean area for close living for quite a while depending on the size of the incident as even the wind is your enemy.
Direct exposure to gama is a write off. You can jerk 200 rads in a second and you are going to die. Alpha radiation can be combated but it takes a central area and a lot of down time and medication.
If it is a full blown attack, everything up there will be ruined for years. And coming out to a nuclear winter is not real appealing either.
The writers of the article are not dealing with reality, just playing politics.
rwood