USA Today Editorial, Opinion Piece Examine U.S. Preparedness for Bioterrorism

Main Category: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism
Article Date: 09 Aug 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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USA Today on Monday published an editorial and an opinion piece on bioterrorism preparedness. Summaries appear below.

• USA Today: Although the U.S. has "thrown $20 billion at the problem since 2001," the nation's public health system remains unprepared to respond to a bioterrorist attack, a USA Today editorial states. The federal government has "stockpiled large quantities of antibiotics," but "no city has a workable plan to get supplies to the public fast enough," according to the editorial. There needs to be "distribution sites, workers trained to dispense drugs or vaccines, police to keep order and, if people are quarantined, a system to deliver drugs to homes," the editorial states, adding that further weaknesses of the system include an inadequate vaccine stockpile and unvaccinated health care workers. Although bioterrorism preparedness is "more complex than anyone imagined," it appears that for HHS four years is not "enough time to prepare for the next attack," the editorial concludes (USA Today, 8/8).
  
  
• William Raub, USA Today: HHS and CDC have "engaged state and local health departments in an unprecedented fashion to enhance our nation's ability to respond to public health emergencies," and the agencies "have come far in short time," Raub, HHS deputy assistant secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness, writes in an USA Today opinion piece. The federal government has "provided nearly $7 billion to state and local health agencies for preparedness activities, including expanded surveillance, detection, and the ability to quickly communicate a public health threat and response," Raub writes. He adds that federal health agencies also have prepared by expanding the Laboratory Response Network to more than 140 laboratories, which are "available around the clock to quickly respond to biological and chemical terrorism." However, HHS and CDC "still have much more to do," including finding "better ways to get medicines and materials to people in time to make a difference," Raub writes. One strategy is the development of the Cities Readiness Initiative, which is designed to expand cities' capacity to "deliver medicines and medical supplies within 48 hours during a large-scale catastrophic event," he writes. Although there is "[a]bsolutely" more to be done to prepare for a bioterrorist attack, "we must not lose sight of the fact that preparedness is a process and not an event," Raub concludes (Raub, USA Today, 8/8).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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