炭疽病侵袭生物恐怖主义教育的传播媒介(下)
Still, authorities and the public are all too aware that more serious attacks--with more dangerous agents, including smallpox--are a very real possibility. Officials are also using the briefings to educate the media and the public about efforts to build up national stores of vaccines and find new drug treatments for infectious diseases.
The government has already begun experiments at four centers around the country to see whether the nation's 15 million stored doses of smallpox vaccine can be diluted to 75 million or more doses and still be effective. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has requested $509 million from Congress for the effort.
Fauci told reporters that ramping up the national smallpox vaccine supply is a prudent move, though it does not mean that authorities will necessarily move to vaccinate large numbers of people.
"No question that we should be going for hundreds of millions of doses of smallpox," he said.
"You want to debate about whether or not you will [vaccinate] preemptively" before any potential attack with the deadly virus occurs, Fauci added.
One briefing held Friday at the National Press Club included celebrity psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers, who was called upon to comment about the anxiety bioterrorism events can bring. Brothers emphasized that worry about bioterrorism attacks is healthy but that excessive superstition about them makes people "do silly things" like buy gas masks or stock up on drinking water.
vBrothers defended House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) for his decision Wednesday to shut down the House of Representatives until next Tuesday to allow health authorities room to run anthrax tests in buildings. Hastert has caught some criticism for projecting what could be interpreted as a lock-down mentality in the House.
"I don't think it sends any message except reasonable caution," Brothers said., 百拇医药
The government has already begun experiments at four centers around the country to see whether the nation's 15 million stored doses of smallpox vaccine can be diluted to 75 million or more doses and still be effective. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has requested $509 million from Congress for the effort.
Fauci told reporters that ramping up the national smallpox vaccine supply is a prudent move, though it does not mean that authorities will necessarily move to vaccinate large numbers of people.
"No question that we should be going for hundreds of millions of doses of smallpox," he said.
"You want to debate about whether or not you will [vaccinate] preemptively" before any potential attack with the deadly virus occurs, Fauci added.
One briefing held Friday at the National Press Club included celebrity psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers, who was called upon to comment about the anxiety bioterrorism events can bring. Brothers emphasized that worry about bioterrorism attacks is healthy but that excessive superstition about them makes people "do silly things" like buy gas masks or stock up on drinking water.
vBrothers defended House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) for his decision Wednesday to shut down the House of Representatives until next Tuesday to allow health authorities room to run anthrax tests in buildings. Hastert has caught some criticism for projecting what could be interpreted as a lock-down mentality in the House.
"I don't think it sends any message except reasonable caution," Brothers said., 百拇医药