Lieberman Calls for Strengthening of Bioterrorism Response
WASHINGTON – Sen. Joseph Lieberman said the federal government must improve its ability to respond to a biological or chemical attack, while Reps. Christopher Shays (R-4th) and James Maloney (D-5th) urged their Connecticut constituents not to take matters into their own hands by stockpiling gas masks and antibiotic drugs in the face of anthrax exposure at the Capitol.
These systems and equipment are in place, Lieberman said at a bio-terrorism hearing Wednesday, but “need to be strengthened – and quickly.”
In the event of a biological attack, Lieberman said, the first agencies to respond would be local medical personnel and public health officials. The federal government must support these first responders, he said, by providing for more response teams, pharmaceutical supplies, and better coordination between law enforcement and public health agencies.
“I hope we can offer some reassurance to the public that the federal government is on duty and rapidly improving its preparedness to respond to whatever may come,” Lieberman said.
Lieberman also stressed the need for an executive-level agency to handle such emergencies since the threat of chemical and biological weapons has increased in the past four to five years. He said public health officials in the past two weeks were “responding urgently and calming a tense nation.”
In an interview, Shays called the stockpiling of masks and antibiotics a “colossal waste of resources.” “Different gas masks are used for different chemical agents,” he said, “they have to fit perfectly; you have to be trained how to use them, how to breathe; and you’ve got to know when to put them on and when to put them off.”
Maloney cautioned people against buying antibiotic drugs saying they may not be effective in fighting diseases used as terrorist weapons.
“I don’t want to discourage people from taking any action that makes them feel safer,” Maloney said, “but I would ask people to listen to what the public health authorities recommend.”
What Mathew Carter, program coordinator at the epidemiology division of the Connecticut’s Department of Public Health (DPH), recommends is for residents to refrain from buying gas masks, stocking up on antibiotics, or taking drastic steps to prepare for a chemical or biological attack.
Gas masks are only intended for short-term use, authorities in the DPH say, and if worn all the time can be impractical and dangerous. In the case of an attack, a special national stockpile of vaccines has been created for distribution to the rest of the country. Special ‘push packs’ of these supplies could be delivered anywhere in the United States within 12 hours or less, according to Carter.
Inappropriate use of antibiotics could cause the development of antibiotic resistant strains of common bacterial diseases and using antibiotics without a prescription may cause adverse reactions like diarrhea, abdominal pain and rash, the DPH cautions.
Eric Mazur, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Norwalk Hospital, advised residents that if someone receives a suspicious-looking package, he or she should put it down and call the Norwalk Fire Department. Norwalk Hospital was “more prepared than most” to handle any biological threats, Mazur said, adding that the hospital had held an education camp for doctors two weeks ago to train them to detect agents and strains.
Mazur stressed the importance of identifying cases early. “You won’t be aware it’s occurred until after it’s occurred,” Mazur said. Shays, who is chairman of the subcommittee on National Security, Veteran Affairs, and International Relations, urged lawmakers to confront the threat of bio-terrorism both at home and abroad. “We have to break these organizations before they have access to weapons of mass destruction,” Shays said Tuesday after a briefing on bio-terrorism. “We’re in a race with the terrorists to prevent them from acquiring weapons. We are in a race to prevent them from getting a better delivery system for biological and chemical agents.
In the case of a chemical and biological attack today, Shays said, “we don’t have the antibiotic [drugs] in the numbers that we need them. There was no immunity from a terrorist attack.”
The DPH also assured residents not to worry about their water supply saying methods already in place to filter and clean drinking water are considered effective against most biological agents. Chlorine, for example they said, would neutralize most biological agents.
