Open letter to Atlanta gathering
'Don't let health scare derail public health care'
By Deirdre Griswold
An open letter opposing the U.S. war on Afghanistan as well
as moves to put the public health system in this country under
greater police and military control was distributed at the
129th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association,
which met in Atlanta, Ga., the week of Oct. 21-25.
The letter, signed by Doctor of Public Health Hillel Cohen
and Marcelo Venegas, M.D., warned that a "panic-driven
response" to the outbreak of anthrax could "threaten public
health much, much more" than the disease itself.
"The FBI reportedly prevented health officials from sharing
information regarding the outbreak. Is this what we should
expect when police agencies take control of public health
functions? Reports from a military lab that the Daschle letter
had high-grade, militarized anthrax now appear to be false.
Were false reports linked to efforts by Pentagon officials to
blame Iraq or other countries for the outbreak?" the letter
asked.
It cautioned against letting the outbreak "be used as a
pretense to widen the war against Afghanistan, to intensify
bombings and sanctions against the people of Iraq, or to take
military action against other peoples in countries that are on
the Bush administration's enemies list."
The letter points out that "In the aftermath of September
11th, at least six people of South Asian or Middle Eastern
appearance have been reported killed in racist hate crimes.
Hundreds more have been assaulted. The heightened fear from the
anthrax cases may lead to more racist attacks by individuals or
to government repression and harassment against
immigrants."
Cohen and Venegas answer the perception of some in public
health that the issue of bioterrorism will direct more
government funds into this field: "The opposite may be true.
Billions of dollars being proposed for bioterrorism response
and preparedness are directed towards anthrax and smallpox and
will do little to help provide basic public health needs.
"The current anthrax cases add to the perception but not to
the reality of risk of catastrophic bioterrorism. We need to
alert the public that a much greater public health risk comes
from natural disease outbreaks and resurgent infectious
diseases, food-borne illnesses, obesity and diabetes, microbial
resistance, the worldwide AIDS epidemic, as well as tobacco
abuse. Many millions are without health insurance, and as more
become unemployed in the economic downturn, even fewer will
have access to health care."
It points out that 2 million people every year die for lack
of clean water, a problem the UN says can be eliminated at the
cost of $10 billion.
On biological weapons, the letter states: "The New York
Times exposed that the Pentagon and CIA are building new
biological weapons and experimenting with genetically modified
versions of anthrax and other pathogens. The Bush
administration opposes an international agreement for
international inspections to strengthen the biological weapons
treaty. Building more secret research facilities under the
control of the military adds to the dangers of accidents, theft
and a new arms race in biological weapons.
"Regarding chemical weapons, the federal General Accounting
Office reported that the U.S. Army still has 30,000 tons of
chemical weapons, has not put forward a safe way to destroy
them, and has limited international inspections as well. The
Bush plan to violate the ABM missile treaty and to go ahead
with the provocative National Missile Defense (Star Wars) adds
to the danger."
The letter concludes that, "The national health scare
threatens to derail the national health care agenda. We need to
explain that war against the people of Afghanistan, the people
of Iraq, and elsewhere will not bring peace or safety, and that
war and racism are not the answer and will disrupt efforts to
strengthen international health. We need to educate the public
that a strong public health system--led by public health
people, not the military and police--is the best defense
against disease, no matter from what source."
Reprinted from the Nov. 1, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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