TRB Webinar: Transportation & COVID-19 – Practices from other disease outbreaks

How can the transportation industry deal with and manage the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak? TRB hosted a webinar on Monday, March 23 from 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern that identified a holistic approach transportation and health agencies may take to contain and manage the outbreak. Addressing decision-making challenges in disease response in the transportation context is a multi-dimensional task, involving not only transportation and transit organizations, but health organizations, emergency management agencies, and communications outlets as well. Presenters discussed their experience with other outbreaks such as H1N1 (2009 – a.k.a. “swine flu”) and Avian Influenza. They identified challenges COVID-19 has presented in their transportation systems and what their agencies are doing to adapt and mitigate risks for those at greatest risk of contracting the illness. Presenters also discussed what can be done today to enhance the resiliency of our transportation systems at risk of future similar disease outbreaks.

The webinar recording is now available.


 

Webinar Presenters

• Vicki Hertzberg, Director, Center for Nursing Data Science, Emory University - Expert in social contact networks, infectious diseases on networks, microbiome of the airplane cabin, and microbiome of the built environment
• Herby Lissade, Deputy Division Chief Principal Transportation Engineer, California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) and Chair of NCHRP panels on Catastrophic Transportation Emergency Management, a Guide to Emergency Response Planning at State Transportation Agencies, and Emergency Management at State Transportation Agencies
• Kim Fletcher, President, Loch Haven Partners - Expert in emergency management, trainer for emergency managers and field operations leaders, and lead author of NCHRP Report 769: A Guide for Public Transportation Pandemic Planning and Response

Moderated by: Neil Pedersen, Executive Director, Transportation Research Board (TRB)

Webinar Outline

1. What we know about how transportation agencies have responded to past communicable outbreaks
2. How should this outbreak be handled by transportation agencies and coordinated between various levels of government and the private sector?
3. Next steps for transportation and public health agencies
4. Question and answer session

The first 60 minutes of the webinar will be for presentations and the final 30 minutes will be reserved for audience questions.

TRB uses GoToWebinar to host all webinars. The software limits webinar entry to the first 1,000 people who sign in. As such, TRB encourages sharing your registration link with multiple people in order to maximize the number of people who can attend this webinar.

There will be no credits awarded for this webinar.

Resources about disease outbreaks and transportation from TRB:
Preparing Airports for Communicable Diseases on Arriving Flights
Airport Roles in Reducing Transmission of Communicable Diseases
Airport Public Health Preparedness and Response: Legal Rights, Powers, and Duties
Germs on a Plane: The Transmission and Risks of Airplane-Borne Diseases (journal article)
Vector-Borne Disease Airport Importation Risk Tool (website)
Emergency Working Groups at Airports (webinar)
Public Transit Emergency Preparedness Against Ebola and Other Infectious Diseases: Legal Issues (webinar)
TRID index on public health
National Academies of Medicine COVID-19 Resources
TRB Director Neil Pedersen's message regarding COVID-19
Transportation in the face of communicable disease

Learning Objectives

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
1. Identify how transportation and public health agencies respond effectively to COVID-19
2. List resources from the Transportation Research Board about how to find more information