Senators criticize claim of safety against bio attack

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 8:58 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was rebuked Wednesday by two senators who accused him of overstating the government's ability to handle a bioterrorism attack and misleading the public.

Faced with reports from around the country that Americans are scrambling to buy gas masks and hoarding antibiotics, Thompson has said that the government is ready and able to protect them.

"We've got to make sure that people understand that they're safe and that we're prepared to take care of any contingency, any consequence that develops from any kind of bioterrorism attack," Thompson told CBS' "60 Minutes" in a segment that aired Sunday night.

At a hearing of the Senate health appropriations subcommittee Wednesday, Thompson repeated his assertion that the government can handle such a crisis: "I said we could respond. And, as evidenced by what we did on Sept. 11, I am absolutely assured we could respond to any contingency and control it."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., looked across the hearing room at Thompson and pointedly asked him, "Will you still love me when I tell you I don't believe you?"

"That's a broad statement and Washington is so full of hyperbole," Byrd said. "We know -- we should know -- because we make them too. I tell you that is a bad thing to do if we mislead, and I know you don't intend to."

Terrorism and public health experts around the country have been warning since the Sept. 11 attacks that the United States is ill prepared to handle a bioterrorism attack. Local medical personnel aren't trained to recognize the symptoms of the exotic diseases that would likely be used in an attack. There isn't enough available hospital space for the enormous influx of patients that would occur. There may not be enough vaccines and antibiotics stockpiled or accessible and there aren't enough epidemiologists available to identify and confirm that an attack has occurred. There aren't procedures in place to ensure the rapid communication of evidence of an attack from local authorities to the highest levels of government.

"I want to calm the American people so that people understand that we are prepared," Thompson told Byrd.

"Well, I just don't believe that, and I say that to you very kindly," Byrd said quietly. "I think we ought to be very careful. I try to be ... I hope we will both be very careful about what we say in this matter."

"I would support what Sen. Byrd said," added Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. "There is a lot of concern in the land ... but those categorical statements will not really help."

Meanwhile Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., urged local governments to train their own responders to a potential bioterrorism attack. Reid is organizing a counterterrorism summit in Henderson on Monday.

"We will not be adequately prepared to respond to a biological threat until we empower our local communities -- our health care workers, firemen and police officers -- to identify and respond to the early signs of an attack," Reid said in a statement. "The plans must be locally responsive so a city like Las Vegas is equipped to care for not only its own citizens, but the thousands of visitors who pass through the city each day."

Members of Congress seem to be grappling with a lack of understanding about bioterrorist threats as much as the general public, even as they attempt to put citizens on alert but not frighten them. At the hearing, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., asked Thompson if he personally owned a gas mask. Thompson said no.

Neither do Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., or Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., the lawmakers said. Gibbons said the federal government seems to be doing everything it can to stockpile vaccines.

Most chemical and biological agents are difficult to access, expensive and require sophisticated technical expertise to handle, Gibbons said.

"The issue is: do the terrorists that remain in the country have the capability and the financing to put the resources together to produce, develop and deploy these biological and chemical agents?" Gibbons said. That's a question investigators are seeking to answer, he said.

Gibbons is vice chairman of a newly appointed House subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security. His panel on Wednesday heard from a group of expert witnesses who discussed anthrax, smallpox, plague and other agents.

The State Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff officials also briefed House members on Wednesday about bioterrorism, Berkley said. She said that as lawmakers seek answers, numerous questions remain.

"The American public has a right to know what the federal government is doing to prepare for these risks -- absolutely frightening risks," Berkley said.