Apropos of nothing, I was talking to someone the other day about the anthrax mailings in 2001 that scared the hell out of a whole lot of us, including me. I was working in DC at the time and my mail was going through the same post office (Brentwood) as the anthrax letters to Leahy and Daschle. It was more than a little disconcerting, shortly after 9/11, to see so many people handling their mail with latex gloves and hording Cipro.
Someone asked me what ever came of the investigation. As far as I know, nothing. No one was ever charged, the source of the attack was never identified, and I literally can’t remember the last update from any federal agency as to the status of the investigation. Considering that this was probably the most serious bioterrorist incident in American history, it’s incredible that the matter has faded from public attention so quickly. If a single word was uttered about the anthrax attack during the campaign, I didn’t hear it.
What’s worse, as the Washington Post reported today on its front page, the U.S. is still “woefully unprepared to protect the public against terrorists wielding biological agents.”
The weaknesses within the system are widespread, including unprepared hospitals that would easily be overwhelmed in the event of a large biological attack, a haphazard communications protocol on how the government would coordinate responses with localities, and a National Institutes of Health that is not producing new vaccines and antidotes. Then there was this gem:
Overlapping jurisdiction among federal agencies working on biodefenses — including the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services — leads to confusion inside and outside government about who is in charge of preparations for, and response to, bioattacks.
That’s right; three years after Capitol Hill was thrown into a panic over bioterrorist mailings to two Dem senators, the Bush administration hasn’t quite figured out yet who’s in charge in the event of an attack with biological weapon.
Feel safer?