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The Rapid Activation for Mass Prophylaxis Exercise (RAMPEx), which had over 1500 participants between 30 locations, was conducted with 13 city agencies as reported by CBS New York.
Supposedly, the drill was for airborne bio-weapons such as Anthrax, however, one must question if the true nature of the drill was based on the recent Ebola outbreak which has already killed over 750 people in West Africa and prompted door-to-door sweeps.
The drill cost about $1.4 million.
The Gothamist reported:
During the drill, officials, volunteers and press waited for the truck of antibiotics to arrive. The DOH's communications explained that it was delayed by traffic - while the truck was being escorted by police cruisers, it wasn't running red lights as it would in an actual anthrax situation.
Fun fact: The antibiotics are from the CDC's Strategic National Stockpile. The CDC claims, "The SNS has stockpiled enough medicine to protect people in several large cities at the same time."
Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the first deputy health commissioner, told reporters, "The purpose of this is to see how effective we are at mobilizing staff from 13 different agencies, getting the antibiotics transported... other coordinating issues that could slow us down."
