Patrick Kennedy: “in closing, when the sarin gas attack happened in Japan, 90 percent of the people who went to the hospital had no…”

“in closing, when the sarin gas attack happened in Japan, 90 percent of the people who went to the hospital had no infection or exposure to the sarin gas whatsoever. People died at the hospital because the medical teams were not able to attend to them because they were overwrought with people coming in and clogging up the hospital. If we had a terrorist attack, the way the people respond is going to determine whether that attack is just a tragedy or whether that attack becomes an all-out disaster. And that is why risk communications are so important. That is why the chairman and I are trying to work to make sure that the Department of Homeland Security does better than it has thus far and does better than the plastic sheeting and duct tape, which they once recommended in the wake of a terrorist threat, in addition to the color-coded system, which has not proven to be very successful. So I thank the chairman for his assistance in this matter.”