Our politicians are on the run, eager to escape from Capitol Hill, a prime target. The nation’s supplies of antibiotics are dwindling. And a paucity of facts from official sources about the nature of the threat we’re facing is filled by the din of the cable networks sketching out every possible nightmare scenario. Where is C. Everett Koop when we need him? Koop was surgeon general during the Reagan administration, and he cut an imposing figure in his military dress, yet he came across as everybody’s favorite family doctor. He had so much credibility that he could say, “I don’t know; I’ll get back to you on that,” and you’d still feel better.
There is no comparable figure in the Bush administration, and one is sorely needed. In the early stages of the anthrax outbreaks, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was too Pollyannaish, insisting there was no problem and that the government was in control. As the incidents spread to other cities and it became clear that the government was unprepared to handle a mass outbreak should it occur, Thompson suffered a crippling loss of credibility. He has since steered clear of center stage, whether by choice or at the insistence of the White House. Tom Ridge, who was sworn in earlier this month as chief of the new office of Homeland Security, has barely been heard from since. Government officials worry Ridge isn’t ready for prime time, but they can’t wait for him to go through a full tutorial. Ridge met yesterday with an “anthrax action team” at the White House, and will be assuming a more visible role, ready or not.
Some members of Congress seem unduly concerned with protecting themselves. When the anthrax mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s office proved to be a more deadly, airborne strain of the bacteria, the House of Representatives promptly shut down for business so members could flee the Capitol. The Senate was expected to follow suit. But Daschle emerged from a “members only” meeting saying the Senate would remain in session, and that he was “absolutely determined’ to do the nation’s business. He expressed confidence in the medical team on Capitol Hill, and pointed out that everybody who needed treatment would receive it, and there was no immediate danger to anybody’s health.
The Senate office buildings are expected to close for the next several days to allow health officials to make sure that no spores are lodged elsewhere. The young staffer who opened the letter addressed to Daschle apparently panicked and threw it into a wastepaper basket, perhaps allowing spores to escape, as opposed to immediately bagging and sealing the envelope. Still, Daschle made the right decision in insisting the Senate remain open. Parliament didn’t shut down during the blitz in London during World War II, and it is important that the government continue to function or else the terrorists have been handed yet another victory.
President Bush is on his way to China, which isn’t the best place for him to be while Americans feel so endangered on the home front. But it would have been awkward for him to cancel the trip, and there is nothing he can do to alleviate the situation from the White House that he can’t do from Air Force One. The truth is the country is not looking to Bush to hold our hands through the anthrax crisis. This is a job for a designated spokesman. Just as the Defense secretary briefs the press and the country on the progress of the military strikes, and the attorney general provides a count on the number of suspects apprehended by the FBI for questioning in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, the country is yearning for a knowledgeable expert to keep us up to date on this new front in the war.
The thousands of hoaxes perpetrated in the glare of the current crisis distract and overwhelm law enforcement and have prompted many frightened Americans to start a regimen of Cipro, the antibiotic used to treat anthrax, drawing down reserves that may be needed later and perhaps sickening themselves in the meantime. Cipro is a powerful drug with adverse side effects that shouldn’t be taken without truly good cause.
The current surgeon general, David Satcher, could take a more forceful public-health role, but he was appointed by President Clinton and doesn’t enjoy the Bush administration’s confidence. Satcher occasionally appears on television, but he is not positioned to become the voice of the administration on this or any other health threat. He is instead a symbol of the Bush administration’s paralysis in the wake of the terrorist attacks when it comes to filling top-level jobs that require Senate confirmation. An executive with a major drug company points out that as the pharmaceutical industry is pressed to increase stockpiles of antibiotics and vaccines, and to perhaps speed new drugs to combat various bioterrorist threats, the Bush administration has not yet named a commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
A name has been floated, but the White House has yet to sign off on anybody. It’s an example of the old politics not yet catching up to the new situation. Michael Crawford, the person speculated for the job, is the former executive director of the National Food Processors Association, and his ties to industry have met with resistance on Capitol Hill. Several Democrats, including Sens. Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, pointed out in a letter to Bush last summer that it would be “unprecedented for the commissioner to be appointed from an industry regulated by the FDA.” The drug-company executive wondered whether the press of events might make Democrats view industry expertise in a different light. Or, as Tom Brokaw put it on television, “In Cipro we trust.” But the debate may be moot, at least for now. Whoever the White House proposes, there are no FBI agents available to do the necessary background checks.
