NYC-WTC_000152373

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

BIOTERRORISM from A4 viously very sobering,” Hamburg said. “It removed hopes that terrorists ompson’s special assistant for bioter­ might have a threshold beyond which rorism preparedness in July. He was they wouldn’t go in terms of causing supposed to begin Oct. 1, but the Sept. - damage and disease.” 11 attack moved up that timetable. So the argument within government He says he’s just now beginning to now, experts say, is who should hold assess the role HHS should play in the the primary responsibility for heading newly created Office of Homeland De­ off such an event and dealing with it fense, headed by Pennsylvania Gov. once it occurs. Should it be law enforce­ Tom Ridge. ment or the military, who have long ex­ President George W. Bush an­ perience with other terrorist weapons? nounced the creation of the Office of Or should it be public health officials? Homeland Defense just 12 days ago. “I sure hope that we understand Since then. Congress has allocated $40 we’re not going to deal with bioterror­ billion to rescue and recovery efforts ism with the rnilitarj’,” answers Dr. D. for the three sites affected by the ter­ A. Henderson, who heads up the Cen­ rorist actions, as well as the new pre­ ter for Civilian Biodefense at the paredness effort. Barely had the presi­ Johns Hopkins School of Public dent finished his address when a Health. He argues that any bioterror­ power scramble began within the feder­ ism event should first be dealt with as al government, sources say, with sever­ an epidemic, and that health officials al agencies competing for power and should have the final word on any deci­ funds.’---------- --------- sions taken early oh. Thompson, Lillibridge and other Dr. Christopher Davis, chief scien­ HHS officials have been preoccupied tist for the Arlington, Va.-based Veridi- with their role in that debate. “It’s un­ an Systems, Inc., agrees. When a large like anything I’ve seen in any major de­ number of people get influenza, “by partmental activity,” Lillibridge told and large the police aren’t involved. Newsday. 'The militaiy.aren’t involved. So the an­ Before Sept. 11, the relative roles of swer is we build a system we can actu­ both HHS and combating bioterrorism ally use on a day-to-day basis to pro­ in Washington counterterrorism peck­ tect ourselves from emerging diseas­ ing order were substantially lower es,” both naturally arising, and deliber­ than that of the Departments of Jus­ ately released. tice and Defense with bioteirorism con­ After all, Davis insists, the ultimate sidered “an interesting, worrisome the­ police and military goals of finding the ory,” according to Sen. Richard Durbin culprit are unlikely ever to be achieved (D-IU.). in a bioterrorist assault. America must Now, though, “nothing can be dis­ “raise the bar” to battle bioterrorism, missed,” Durbin told Newsday. he says, bolstering the public health in­ “There’s a great deal of concern from frastructure so significantly that ter­ Washington, on down to the grass­ rorists see little chance that certain roots.” diseases would kill tens of thousands The fact that the terrorists were on of people. suicide missions, coupled with their de­ This won’t be easy, other experts liberate targeting of civihans “was ob- note.

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