DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Risk of biochemical attacks low, but N.Y. is not immune By RUSS BUETTNER Kurds in his country — can kill in- computer program that analyzes DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER stantly. But several less serious daily emergency room admis- The attack on America two chemical weapons have anti- sions and can red-flag evidence weeks ago has heightened fears dotes, so saving lives demands of a biological attack on the day that the county could face an identifying the agent quickly and symptoms appear — critical to even more horrific threat — mas­ getting medicine to sick people. saving victims, Hauer said. sive deaths from a chemical or bi­ “1 call that a lights-and-sirens A second phase of the city’s re­ ological attack. response,” said Hauer,;now a con­ sponse entails getting medicine Ej^erts say the risk remains sultant for Kroll Associates and to the sick and quarantining the relatively low, given the difficulty bioterrorism adviser to Health contagious. But disturbingly, anti­ of manufacturing, transporting and Human Services Secretary dotes stored by the feds are in and spreading the deadliest Tommy Thompson. short supply. For example, there agents. But the government has . contrast, bio agents By _ such as are only 7.5 million doses of taken the concerns seriously anthrax or smallpox can travel smallpox vaccinations on hand. enough to extend a ban on crop- by air and take days to make peo- The federal government last dusting flights yesterday after re- Pie obviously sick, which by then year awarded a $343 million con­ ports that at least one hijacker ™ay be too late. tract to make 40 million doses. had questioned a Florida crop Training and Supply crucial The delivery schedule was speed­ ed up after the recent attach. duster. Such an attack could flood hos- Unknown to most, part of the Whateverthensk, abiochemi- pital emergency rooms beyond massive emergency response on c^ attack would require a mas- anything ever seen. And doctors the day of the attack on the sive, speedy response to save are not trained to recognize the World Trade Center included those exposed. In that regard, horror unfolding before their checks by a special National the city is widely considered a eyes. . Guard unit ’ for germ warfare. leader — but hardly immune. “Few physicians have ever Nothing was found. “I think that New York City is seen cases of anthrax or small- The World Health Organiza­ probably one of the best pre- pox or pneumonic plague.” Dr. tion rushed out a report yester­ pared cities in the country,” said Donald Henderson, director of day warning that technological Jerome Hauer, who built the the Center for Civilian Biode- advances made it possible for ter­ city’s plan. “But I’ll qualify that fense Studies at Johns Hopkins rorists to kill millions with chemi­ by saying I don’t think any city in University, told Congress a week cal or biological weapons. the country is adequately pre- before the attack. “The magnitude of possible im­ pared for biological terrorism at “The whole key is finding out pacts on civilian populations of this time.” very early that you have an- inci- their use or threatened use oblig­ A chemical attack — like the re- dent so you can ... treat people,” es governments both to seek pre­ lease of Sarin gas by Iraqi strong- Hauer said. vention and to prepare r^ponse inan Saddam Hussein against Years ago, the city created a plans,” the agency said.

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