False alarms take toll on tired crews

Washington Times ^ | 10/16/01 | Matthew Cella

[kattracks]

People are crying "anthrax" too often, officials say, and they are urging people to use common sense before calling out exhausted teams of experts to examine piles of ordinary dust, baby powder or blackboard chalk.

Scares and false alarms were reported around the world yesterday.

[John Jamieson]

Gee, I'm glad we didn't have a big attack, like maybe 500 letters?

[tuesday afternoon]

bump

[RJayneJ]

Quote of the Day by jwalsh07

[js1138]

This scare is pretty tame compared to an actual attack. A bit like a fire drill with a real but easily contained fire. If it exposes weaknesses in our public health system, so much the better.

I can recall when public health meant public health, not welfare.

[sharktrager]

I find it discouraging that this article is going virtually ignored on Free Republic. Posts with comments about things like "I heard about a hazmat call on my scanner" are getting dozens of replies and bumps.

This is one of the things many here have been greatly concerned about. No matter how much we spend, resources to respond to calls will always be limited. No matter how much we spend there will be limits on the availability of antibiotics.

I believe we all need to be careful, but I also believe we need to think.