Across the board, we have every state failing to meet the national goal of 15 percent or less of the population being obese.

252

The reality is that if a pandemic hits, it's not just a health emergency. It's the big one. It requires big thinking to make sure all those dots are connected. Katrina was a wake-up call.

249

We're not prepared. It's the ugly truth. If our emergency response failed so badly for a Category 5 hurricane, imagine what would happen if a Category 5 viral storm hit every state.

206

It's inexcusable that there are no performance measures or progress reports that the public can use. People need to know what they can expect from the public programs that are intended to protect them in an emergency.

203

We have a crisis of poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the U.S. and it's time we dealt with it.

184

This is the largest public health crisis to face this country in nearly a hundred years. If [HHS] does its job well, what you actually do is you prevent hundreds of thousands of people from getting sick.

168

Bulging waistlines are growing and it's going to cost taxpayers more dollars regardless of where you live.

156

Health-care workers need to be assured that their families will be taken care of in these situations, and that can mean everything from making sure they get drugs or vaccines, or food and a safe place to stay or even child care during an emergency. Hospitals need to be sure they can man the fort in the midst of a crisis.

147

We have a crisis in poor nutrition and physical activity in this country. It's simple math: we are eating more and exercising less. And it's time we deal with it in a much more systematic and realistic way.

144