Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson might be a good administrator for all I know. Certainly his earlier work on Wisconsin’s welfare system showed that it was possible to reform welfare without putting poor people through hell. But I’ve never found him reassuring when it comes to bioterrorism.
Which is a little ironic, when you consider that during the Anthrax attacks of 2001, reassurance seemed to be the only thing he had to offer. Consider this from an October 5th NY Times article by Gina Kolata:
“It is an isolated case, and it is not contagious,” Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, said at a White House briefing yesterday afternoon. “There is no terrorism.”
(Thompson’s office disputed this quote on November 1st, claiming that he was interrupted as he said “There’s no evidence of terrorism — at this —-” By then, of course, everyone knew it was terrorism.)
Anyway, in an AP story by Terence Hunt, Tommy Thompson tries his best to undo the reassurance:
Thompson had said he worries “every single night” about a possible terror attack on the food supply, and despite dramatic increases in inspections of food imports, only “a very minute amount” of food is tested at ports and airports.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do,” Thompson said. “We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that.”
Thanks man, for helping out in every way you can.
(On the other hand, if Tommy Thompson is spreading fear and uncertainty about a terrorism issue, maybe it’s a sign of something really scary. Damn…)
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