San Diego County officials used computer simulation last year to see how well they would respond to a bioterrorism attack. The answer: not very. In the simulation, thousands of people became violently ill, quickly overwhelming hospitals.
In an Orange County terrorism drill at Edison Field in Anaheim last year, law enforcement and other emergency agencies won praise from the Department of Defense for their rapid response. But communication on the county's troubled new radio system was poor, and several hospitals proved inadequately prepared to treat victims of a chemical or biological attack.
In Los Angeles County, it doesn't take a computer simulation or a drill to uncover the weaknesses of emergency rooms. Crowding on any given weekend forces at least some to temporarily shut their doors to incoming ambulances. The county's chronically underfunded public health system, saddled with a severe nursing shortage, an astronomical number of uninsured residents and the county's sheer size--10 million people across 4,000 square miles--struggles to get by in ordinary times.
Southern Californians have reason to be alarmed at the region's lack of preparedness. But the most important thing that ordinary residents, who make up the front line in this war against civilians, can do is not panic. Consider the very long odds of coming to harm. Channel anxiety into stocking up on emergency supplies, which is always a good idea in earthquake country, but not gas masks or antibiotics, which wouldn't do any good and could do harm. Residents can find information about anthrax through the California Department of Health Services' toll-free information line, (800) 550-5234, or its Web site (\o7 www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/bioterrorism\f7 ).
Family doctors and emergency room physicians throughout Southern California need to educate themselves on how to detect anthrax and other bioterrorism agents. Unlike an earthquake or a bomb explosion, everyone wouldn't necessarily know at once that an attack had been launched. There is no simple test for anthrax. Only by detecting--and reporting--identifiable symptoms could public health officials see a pattern and take action. County health officials are helping train doctors, as is the California Medical Assn. (\o7 www.cmanet.org\f7 ).
