On January 13, 2018, Hawaii experienced an erroneous alert that falsely warned of an imminent ballistic missile strike. Rather than focus on the inconvenience caused by the false alert, we used reporting of the event to identify the missing elements that would characterize a system that could save lives by alerting and informing the public in a nuclear detonation. These include warnings that contain essential information rather than directing recipients to secondary sources; a system that issues alerts directly from federal agencies that will have the earliest warning; a robust multimodal alerting system that can deliver messages before and after the detonation; and swift activation of federal agencies immediately upon warning.
BurkleFM, DallasCE. Developing a nuclear global health workforce amid the increasing threat of a nuclear crisis. Disaster Med Public Health Prep, 2016; 10(1):129-144.
5.
DallasCE, BellW, StewartD, CarusoA, BurkleFM. Nuclear war between Israel and Iran: lethality beyond the pale. Confl Health, 2013; 7(1):10.
6.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.. Radiation emergencies—What should I do? CDC website. Updated October 3, 2014. https://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/whattodo.asp. Accessed January18, 2018.
7.
US Department of Homeland Security.. Plan ahead for disasters. https://www.ready.gov. Accessed January31, 2018.
