Judd Gregg: “As we seen in recent years, our Nation is not immune from major public health and medical emergencies such as the…”

“As we seen in recent years, our Nation is not immune from major public health and medical emergencies such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 or Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many of us were living under a false sense of security that the United States was not susceptible to major terrorist attacks. We also believed that our Federal, state, and local governments had all the appropriate emergency preparedness measures in place to handle even the worst-case disasters, like the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina or a pandemic outbreak of avian flu. Prior to 9/11, our Nation's public health system provided passive surveillance to detect and track the spread of infectious diseases and to educate the public on how to better protect themselves. Are we better prepared today to handle a national public health emergency than we were prior to 9/11? I would say yes. But, we need to do more. In the five years since 9/11 our Nation's public health system has begun to transform into a health system able to respond to public health emergencies, whether it is a terrorist attack, such as the anthrax, or a natural event. The Bioterrorism and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Act of 2002, which I co-authored, provided a number of critical provisions to strengthen our Nation's public health infrastructure after we were attacked on 9/11.…”