One year later.(bioterrorism protection)

Publication: Consumer Reports

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.

After almost a year of frenetic effort assessing our nation's vulnerability to a terrorist attack, significant steps are being taken to increase public safety. In mid-June, President Bush signed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which allocates nearly $5 billion to boost the work of federal, state, and local governments. Along with strengthening the nation's counter-terrorism infrastructure, the new law prescribes an integrated plan for improving the government's ability to protect the food and water supply and to distribute vaccines and drugs in case of future attacks.

But more needs to be done, says a panel of 118 leading doctors, engineers, and scientists brought together by the National Research Council (NRC), the operating arm of the nonprofit National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D.C. The panel's six-month assessment, released shortly after the signing of the bioterrorism bill (although not in...

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