The United States is not prepared for the prepared for behavioral primary care management during a weapons of mass destruction incident. This is because the use of a weapon for mass destruction during a terrorist attack will result in significant psychological and emotional impacts. The catastrophic outcome of the attack may be overwhelming for the United States’ primary care and emergency clinic to address. According to Lacy and Benedek (2003), weapons of mass destruction (WMD) result in psychological and behavioral reactions that possess predictable and unexplainable symptoms. Although the medical practitioners in the US may have the capacity to address the acute reactions from individuals and groups, the emergency clinics may lack the capacity to medically respond to the chronic cases. Furthermore, before the states identifies the biological or chemical agent used in conducting the attack, mass panic and exacerbated health concerns may be growing rapidly.
A terrorist WMD attack is unpredictable and the US has to put in place effective procedures to address the issues. However, even though there is a predictable course in dealing with such an attack the unexpected outcomes create challenges that may hinder the emergency response team from implementing an effective primary care management system. Medically unexplained symptoms and chronic outbreaks of diseases create a chaotic environment that intensifies the pre-exiting panic condition (Glass & Schoch-Spana, 2002) . Although the emergency response team may be prepared beforehand on how to respond to such catastrophic situations one can never be prepared enough since such attacks often occur unexpectedly. For the United States to be prepared for such a scenario it must put in place effective emergency plans that prepare all medical staffs for the possible medical outcomes of a terrorist WMD attack. This way, medical practitioners will have an overview on how to conduct themselves and minimize the impacts of the disaster.
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References
Glass, T. & Schoch-Spana, M. (2002). Bioterrorism and the People: How to Vaccinate a City against Panic, Clinical Infectious Diseases , Volume 34, Issue 2, 15, Pages 217–223, https://doi.org/10.1086/338711
Lacy, T. & Benedek, D. (2003), Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction: managing the behavioral reaction in primary care. South Med J .;96(4):394-9.
