Outbreak response center

After leaving Greenville, I headed down to Atlanta, where I've been working at the CDC and catching up with old friends for a couple days.

Today I was at the CDC working and one of the girls I was meeting with offered to take me down to the outbreak response center, where the response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak is being managed. I have to say, it was kind of awesome. It looked like a scene out of a movie.

Imagine a big room with semi-circular rows of desks dotted with computers and packed with people, all facing a wall divided into eight giant screens, each one filled with a map or table or diagram or bullet points. Then add, behind the big room, several smaller rooms, each filled with computers, people and television screens. Add a constant buzz of sound with keywords like "influenza", "H1N1", "another case" and "investigation" and you'll have a pretty good sense of the scene.

It was certainly impressive. CDC has pulled a huge portion of its regular employees from their offices around the CDC campus in Atlanta and has brought in a number of employees from around the world and placed them in the emergency response facility. Even from the little bit of time I spent there, I knew this was an incredible meeting of minds. Very impressive.