[S]OUTH BURLINGTON — Vermont agencies and the Air National Guard are simulating the outbreak of infectious disease in the Green Mountain State as part of a larger disaster preparedness drill.
The exercise envisions an outbreak in which thousands of Vermonters are infected and hundreds are dead or dying while hospitals are overwhelmed and medical supplies shipped in by the federal government need to be distributed across the state.
“We know that tomorrow we have to start passing out medicines to people,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen on Wednesday, describing the situation simulated during the exercise. “We have to get out thousands of doses of medicine to our 16 hospitals and also to the general public.”
“The Guard does what they do so well, which is move the materials, get them where they need to go on a timely basis, and the Health Department ensures that we know where they need to go and that we have the medical reserve capacity to actually distribute them,” Chen added.
Chen addressed a news conference in front of pallets of training supplies at the Air National Guard base in South Burlington. He was joined by Chris Herrick, director of Vermont Emergency Management and Homeland Security, as well as Maj. Gen. Steven Cray of the Vermont Air National Guard.
“We don’t get a lot of opportunity to train with scenarios like this,” Cray said, adding that this exercise is an important chance for the Guard to work alongside medical professionals and emergency responders.
“This exercise is just starting, but we’ve already identified things we didn’t expect would happen,” Herrick said. The simulation will help the state fine tune its procedures in advance of an actual disease outbreak, he added.
During such an event, medical supplies sent from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s strategic national stockpile would be delivered by the Guard to five distribution points across the state in Barre, Rutland, Brattleboro, Essex and St. Albans.
Chen said virtually every Health Department employee will participate in the exercise, some joining hired actors to simulate patients pouring into hospitals and distribution sites.
The simulation is part of Vigilant Guard, a federally required state catastrophic event preparedness exercise that occurs roughly four times a year nationwide, according to a Vermont Air National Guard official.
It is the largest disaster preparedness drill Vermont has undertaken, officials said. The 10-day exercise, which began Monday, will involve 5,000 participants at 50 sites across the state and include a variety of other disaster simulations.
