Wyoming Scores 6 out of 10 on Health Emergency Preparedness

Wyoming scored 6 out of 10 on key indicators of public health preparedness in the 10th annual Ready or Not report.

Wyoming was among 35 states and Washington, D.C. that scored a six or lower.

The report was issued by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  According to a release from healthyamericans.org, the country has made strides in improving both preparedness and public health in the years since the 9/11 attacks, but there are still significant gaps.

In the report, Kansas and Montana scored the lowest - three out of 10 - and Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin scored highest - eight out of 10.

Dr. Jeffrey Levi, Executive Director for Trust for America's Health was quoted in the release saying that budget cuts are something that has been affecting the country's preparedness.

 "In the past decade, there have been a series of significant health emergencies, including extreme weather events, a flu pandemic and foodborne outbreaks. But, for some reason, as a country, we haven't learned that we need to bolster and maintain a consistent level of health emergency preparedness. Investments made after September 11th, the anthrax attacks and Hurricane Katrina led to dramatic improvements, but now budget cuts and complacency are the biggest threats we face."

Levi calls the report a snapshot of our nation's public health emergency preparedness.