SEATTLE — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has called the World Cup the largest sporting event in U.S. history — and it’s going to present a potentially major strain on our health systems.
Seattle and King County have anticipated around 750,000 visitors from the World Cup, which will effectively double Seattle’s population — the city itself has a population of around 800,000 people, according to state data.
Host cities and their healthcare systems have overseen planning ahead of potential emergencies.
“We started preparing for those types of events a year-and-a-half or more ago with a lot of inter-agency coordination, a lot of coordination with the other hospitals up here,” said Mark Taylor, the senior associate administrator for Harborview Medical Center.
Taylor says the hospital, which is the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, prepared using simulations and drills in the months leading up to the matches.
Already, the hospital operates at around 85-95% occupancy during peak hours on average days, Taylor said. Harborview does, however, have surge plans to provide care past its 100% occupancy rate.
For infectious disease risk, the hospital focuses on screening people who present in need of care, Taylor said, including where they have traveled, their vaccination history, people they’re around and symptoms they’re presenting.
To help ease potential strain, Taylor said people should avoid emergency rooms unless they actually require emergency care. In some cases, patients might be better served by other urgent care needs.
Federally, FEMA offered more than $600 million in grants to host cities to prepare for emergencies and security during the matches.
While the grant allows for expenses related to personal protective equipment and the development of emergency exercises, the guidelines do not appear to directly reference public health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told KIRO 7 it has assessed and planned for potential public health risks, using both risk-based and all-hazards approaches, according to the agency.
“This work included reviewing threat-specific plans, coordinating with federal, state, and local partners, and activating a Level 3 response through the end of July to support surveillance and coordination,” wrote Capt. Cria Gregory, CDC FIFA World Cup incident manager. “Earlier this year, CDC also issued interim planning guidance for state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments.”
Then, there are non-government entities stepping up, too.
Rebecca Katz and her team at Georgetown have been tracking infectious diseases spreading during the World Cup.
“I think we can all agree that the public health infrastructure is strained and that our colleagues are stretched in ways that they haven’t been necessarily stretched before, and so we have an opportunity to help as force multipliers,” Katz said.
Katz serves as the Director of the Health Security Operations Center. The team provides daily risk assessment reports and briefings, tracking a range of risks that span from ebola to measles.
“Just a few weeks in, we’ve had numerous occasions where we’ve been able to identify a signal, share that with the health department, it’s the first time they’re hearing about it,” she said.
The team collects and analyzes data from dozens of partners. Her team works to consolidate and repackage these diverse information streams.
“There’s a lot of different streams of information right now in the public health spacem, not all of them sit in a or owned by public entities,” she said. “What we’re able to do again as a civil society effort is bring some of those streams of information together and analyze them and then be able to help share them back.”
No major outbreaks to warn of yet, she said. But the work isn’t over.
“It’s been a great drill,” Taylor said. “Let’s just hope that it stays as a drill.”