Terror Attack or Flu Pandemic A Nation Prepares
Summary
Dr. Paulo J. Reyes has written a fiction book on a terrorist attack using smallpox taking place in an ER in Los Angeles, which describes such a scenario.To limit the fallout, the industrialized world must create a detailed response strategy involving the public and private sectors.” Pandemic viruses arent the only threat facing our nation.Based on factual information and real life hospital settings, it portrays a terrorist attack utilizing smallpox and the struggles the medical profession must endure to get government acceptance that this deadly disease is once again a clear and present danger.Within 24 hours, a $3.9 billion legislative proposal to buy and stockpile huge new quantities of vaccines and antiviral medications was designed and passed with almost no debate or discussion.Mike Osterholm wrote in a July 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs, “If an influenza pandemic struck today, borders would close, the global economy would shut down, international vaccine supplies and health-care systems would be overwhelmed, and panic would reign.To limit the fallout, the industrialized world must create a detailed response strategy involving the public and private sectors.”Pandemic viruses arent the only threat facing our nation.