U.S. is gaining vs. biowarfare

New York Daily News ^ | 9/09/02 | CORKY SIEMASZKO

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The Bush administration knew enemy states were working on biological weapons, but it took serious steps to protect Americans from germ warfare only after anthrax began arriving in the mail.

Now, nearly a year later, the nation is in "much, much better shape" to deal with biowarfare, said Donald Henderson, former director of the federal Office of Public Health Preparedness.

Still, if terrorists are bent on launching a biological attack, there's not a whole lot anyone can do to stop them from slipping deadly microbes into an unguarded ventilation shaft or poisoning a well, experts say.

"That's why training is key to all of this," said John Eldridge, editor of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense. "People who become infected won't show symptoms for two, three days. Emergency workers have to be able to recognize symptoms - and prevent public panic."

After the anthrax attacks, the feds responded to the deadly biological threat in the time-tested Washington way: They threw money at the problem.

The administration boosted the budget for the Office of Public Health Preparedness to $3 billion from $300 million - and is expected to ask for $5.9 billion in 2003.

Secret depots

The government also stockpiled millions of doses of anthrax vaccine and proposed inoculating 500,000 emergency workers.

It placed 135 million doses of vaccine against smallpox - a disease that Henderson helped eradicate two decades ago but lives on in U.S. and Russian labs - at secret depots around the country.

Paramedics in cities big and small were outfitted with the latest in ventilators and oxygen tanks and trained to contain chemical attacks on subways and at other vital points.

Eldridge said some of the millions could have been better spent. Inoculating emergency workers against anthrax is of limited value, he said, because there's no way to predict which strain of the bacteria will be used in an attack.

Entire population

"Once there is a biological outbreak, it's beyond the range of local authorities," he said.

That's because infected people can infect thousands of others before any symptoms appear. "The medics want people not to move," Eldridge said. "The natural instinct of Joe Public is to rush home to his family and then get the hell out."

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the federal government will soon be able to vaccinate the entire U.S. population against smallpox - if the need arises - but is first considering inoculating emergency workers.

"A year ago we had enough vaccine for maybe 15 million. We are now well on the way to producing enough vaccine for 350 million people," Cheney told NBC, noting that there are side effects such as the probability the vaccine will infect some people with smallpox.

Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution agreed that the feds cannot guard against every conceivable biological attack and should protect against "catastrophic attacks" by stepping up security at major places like airports, stadiums, subways, monuments and nuclear and chemical plants.

Eldridge said the government needs to reassure the public that a biological attack is extremely unlikely.

"Terrorists don't like something that has a slow fuse," he said. "They like things that make an immediate impact, like explosives."