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Bioterror Preparedness Still Lacking
One year after President Bush sought to energize the nationâs bioterrorism preparations with an unprecedented smallpox vaccination campaign, the program has all but ground to a halt. A report released yesterday, meanwhile, finds that only two states -- Florida and Illinois -- are prepared to distribute and administer vaccines or medicines that would be needed in the event of a major outbreak or attack. Fewer than a dozen states have written plans for dealing with other public health threats such as pandemic flu, the report added, and most remain ill-prepared for any large-scale emergency. After two years of work and $2 billion in federal aid, "states are only modestly better prepared to respond to public health emergencies than they were prior to Sept. 11, 2001," the Trust for Americaâs Health, a nonpartisan, nonprofit health advocacy group, concluded. Despite Bushâs high-profile call on Dec. 13, 2002, for the immunization of millions of health care workers and emergency responders, the number vaccinated has been stuck at 38,700 for months. EFL Iâve been screaming about this for some time. While this was, for the most part, a media created panic, it illustrates the gridlock of the bureaucracy in this country. The money was spent on enlarging various bureaucratic kingdoms across the country rather than preparing for a bioterror outbreak. Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2003-12-12 |
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