Tag Archives: Federal Emergency Management Agency

this pressed for your right to know: I’m a Hazmat-Trained Hospital Worker: Here’s What No One Is Telling You About Ebola | Alternet


I’m a Hazmat-Trained Hospital Worker: Here’s What No One Is Telling You About Ebola | Alternet.

 

 “Ebola is brilliant.”

It is a superior virus that has evolved and fine-tuned its mechanism of transmission to be near-perfect. That’s why we’re all so terrified. We know we can’t destroy it. All we can do is try to divert it, outrun it. 

I’ve worked in health care for a few years now. One of the first

Cover of "The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True...

Cover of The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story

things I took advantage of was training to become FEMA-certified for hazmat ops in a hospital setting. My rationale for this was that, in my home state of Maine, natural disasters are almost a given. We’re also, though you may not know it, a state that has many major ports that receive hazardous liquids from ships and transport them inland. In the back of my mind, of course, I was aware that any hospital in the world could potentially find itself at

the epicenter of a scene from The Hot Zone. That was several years ago. Today I’m thinking, by God, I might actually have to use this training. Mostly, though, I’m aware of just that — that I did receive training. Lots of it.