In Case of Emergency, Read This Blog

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A Citizen’s Eye View of Public Preparedness

‘Anthrax Letters’ Case May Be Solved, But Question Remains ‘Are We Ready For Bioterrorism?’

August 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment

The suicide of U.S. Army scientist Bruce E. Ivins may finally solve the ‘Anthrax Letters’ case. Almost seven years ago, letters with anthrax powder began appearing across the country and eventually resulted in the deaths of five people. One of those deaths came very close to home for me and my family. And it turned out to be a significant part of why I have become so involved in citizen emergency preparedness, and why I write this blog.

Kathy Nguyen, 61, worked at the Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital where she was exposed to Anthrax. The hospital is directly across the street where my family and I lived. Such proximity, coming just six weeks after 9/11’s death, caused my wife to ask me “What should we be doing” as a family to prepare ourselves for the next terror attack? it turned out not to be a simple, straightforward answer. But my research on emergency preparedness as well as this blog is focused on trying to help my wife and other Americans help work towards finding it. And maybe it’s at least something positive that comes out of the terrible deaths of Kathy Nguyen and the other four victims.

That’s why I hope (though I’m not overly optimistic) government officials, the media and we citizens use today’s news as an opportunity to ask if we are more prepared for anthrax (or any other biological) attack than we were in October of 2001. From a governmental perspective, though there is still a long ways to go I believe the answer is ‘yes’. There are more resources, more training, more research and more overall preparation and attention. Work continues on developing logistics for stockpiling and distributing vaccines and other medicines if necessary. Agencies such as the Centers of Disease Control have done exhaustive after action reports critiquing their performance with each other and the public, and then making adjustments. 

However, I would argue that the public itself is not really any more prepared than we were. There has been very little citizen education on bioterrorism. It is rarely discussed by government officials or the media. And it’s not as if we ourselves are raising the question to our political leaders in “You Tube” debates or town meetings. That will be a problem the next time anthrax is used as a weapon.

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Tags: Biological Terrorism

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