WASHINGTON — The United States is inadequately prepared to confront bioterrorist attacks, according to a broad range of health experts and officials. The nation must develop new vaccines and treatments, they say, but it must also fortify its fragile public health infrastructure, the first line of defense in detecting and containing biological threats.
Bioterrorism — the intentional release of potentially lethal viruses or bacteria into the air, food or water supply — poses daunting technical challenges, and experts say it would be difficult to carry out a successful attack. Still, many believe it is inevitable that someone will eventually attempt it in the United States.
"For bioterrorism, the No. 1 inadequacy, if you had to rank them, is the inadequacy of our public health infrastructure," said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "That is a product of about 15 years of neglect."
In a report issued last week, the General Accounting Office said the government's bioterrorism planning was so disjointed that the agencies involved could not even agree on which biological agents posed the biggest threat. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, consider smallpox a major risk. But the FBI does not even put smallpox on its list.
At the same time, there are holes in the federal bureaucracy, where two important health positions remain unfilled: commissioner of food and drugs and director of the National Institutes of Health. The Food and Drug Administration will play a crucial role in the development of vaccines or treatments for use in the event of a biological attack, but President Bush and Congress — in particular Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. — have been unable to agree on an acceptable nominee.
Kennedy and Frist are urging Bush to spend at least $1 billion on a range of measures that, they say, will improve the ability of health officials to combat bioterrorism.
A big part of the government's challenge is in simply coordinating its response; a range of bureaucracies, including the departments of energy, defense and justice and the health and human services agency, are busy planning for bioterrorist attacks. That job will soon fall to Tom Ridge, the governor of Pennsylvania, whom Bush named to head a new Office of Homeland Security.
Some experts outside government say Thompson has already taken a step in the right direction by creating a new position coordinating a department-wide initiative against bioterrorism. In July, Thompson named Scott Lillibridge, the disease control center's top expert in bioterrorism, to fill the job.
Though worries remain, many experts agree that the groundwork has been laid for improving the nation's response to a bioterror attack.