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The House Homeland Security Committee planned a fact-finding trip about public health preparedness at mass gatherings and decided to conduct the research at two of the nation's most heavily attended sporting events, NASCAR's Bank of America 500 event this weekend and the UAW-Ford 500 last weekend.
Staff who organized the trips advised the NASCAR-bound aides to get a range of vaccines before attending -- hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.
The four aides were asked to explore public health issues at events involving large gatherings, such as how law enforcement and medical personnel would respond to an act of terrorism or other emergency. Lawmakers weren't part of the trip.
The staffers traveled to Talladega last weekend, and are scheduled to be at Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend.
Jim Walker, Alabama's director of homeland security, said the congressional committee aides who visited Talladega worked hard. He said they were trying to determine whether the state and federal emergency response system was adequate to handle a situation at such a large event.
The United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has just announced plans for an anti-terrorism exercise called Vigilant Shield 08. The exercise which is slated to run from October 15th to October 20th is described as a way to prepare, prevent and respond to any number of national crises. The exercise is simply a test case scenario for the implementation of martial law.