Thursday, October 04, 2001

A letter to Salon about biological attacks

I just read about "Scary Mary" a former FAA official who quit because of her disgust at the airline industry (and the FAA cheerleaders) saying airport security wasn't cost effective. They put the value of a human life at 2.7 million dollars. If these business friendly republicans (and democrats, to a lesser degree) are in charge of preparing public health systems to save lives in the event of a biological attack, then we're in deep D'oh now. Any talk of improving the public health system in this country has been quickly shot down by republicans. And anyone who even thought about trying to improve the health system (read Hillary) is quickly trashed from every angle by every dittohead in the beltway (and out). Most of these guys are controlled by industry lobbyists and campaign donors who say they can't do something like prepare the health infrastructure for a biological terrorist attack. That would cost billions, and, if a life is worth even as much as 3 million, then there'd have to be an awful lot of dead and dying people to make any improvements in our health care system cost effective. When will we start spending money on the people of this country, instead of on capital gains tax cuts? When we stop "electing" republicans, that's when.

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