The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week ― days after President Donald Trump bragged about the size and effectiveness of his “Nuclear Button” (which doesn’t exist) ― that the agency will hold a public session on how to prepare for a nuclear explosion.
The CDC said its briefing, which is scheduled for the afternoon of Jan. 16, will address “planning and preparation efforts” for such a strike.
“While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps,” the CDC explained in its description of the event. “Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness.”
The agency said most people “don’t realize that sheltering in place for at least 24 hours is crucial to saving lives and reducing exposure to radiation.”
Good to know.
Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have been engaged in an escalating battle of threats and taunts over their respective nuclear arsenals. A defiant Pyongyang has made major advances to its nuclear program over the past year, and has directly threatened Americans. Trump has responded by saying the U.S. would “totally destroy” the hermit kingdom, a nation of 25 million people, if provoked.
In the event of an actual nuclear war, “there would be survivors for days trying to make their way out of the rubble and back home, dying of radiation poisoning,” Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy expert at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, previously told HuffPost. You can read more about that hypothetical scenario here.
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