Congress' drive to cut spending could increase the threat to US citizens' from bioterrorism as well as more common epidemics, a new study says.
"Fears over bioterrorism have the U.S. government asking scientists to hold back on publishing details of their experiments with the bird flu virus.
That development comes against a backdrop of declining preparedness on the part of U.S. public-health departments to respond not only to potential bioterrorism attacks, but also outbreaks of new diseases and natural disasters, a new report says.
Budget cuts at all levels of government are the culprit, according to the annual report released yesterday by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (We’ve written before about the budget crunch facing public-health departments.)"
Katherine Hobson reports for Wall St. Journal's Health blog December 21, 2011.
