That's life in America!

Photo:  Entrance to Ft. Benning, Georgia, during the protest against the School of the Americas

Got an email at work from NC Dept of Health.  They linked to the “EPI Notes” which covers preparation for public health emergency.  Although they went on and on about the Anthrax attacks, they failed to mention that the anthrax came from the US government’s biological weapons of mass destruction program.  They failed to even mention that the US government might have been a possible source for these weapons.  I wrote this email in response to the person who sent out the email that linked to the EPI Notes:

I just read through the section on Anthrax in the EPI-notes.  There was no mention of the fact that the anthrax came from Fort Detrick, and was made by a US government employee (more likely, more than one, but the FBI does not admit that).  I think that is an important element of the story, since folks are unlikely to see the “government” as protecting and providing for us in a medical emergency when no one is honest about the fact that the “government” actually created the “emergency” that killed five Americans.  Another point that should be noted is that “sources” at Fort Detrick claimed there was Bentonite in the anthrax and put the blame for that on a country called Iraq.  That helped lead to the Iraq war, which was a public health nightmare in that country of massive proportions.  It also killed over 4,000 Americans, and that death toll will rise.

Next email I sent:

I am no expert on public health, but it seems to me the first thing that should be done regarding anthrax is to shut down (safely) all US production of this biological WMD.  Having a back up plan to deal with a public health emergency like this is good, but it seems to me that prevention would be a whole lot safer, smarter and cheaper for the US taxpayer.

Response:

I thank you for reading EPI Notes and I appreciate your concerns, but the NC PH Preparedness program cannot affect any of the changes you are suggesting and the point of our article was to show a brief historical review of the response to both man-made and natural issues/disasters.

  

My response:

Well, I guess you can do nothing for prevention then.  Too bad for the dead people.  That’s life in America, I guess.