Katherine Eban

About the author: Katherine Eban is a Brooklyn-based investigative journalist. She writes about medicine and public health for numerous national magazines.

The federal government is establishing elaborate programs to protect the United States against bioterrorism. However, it is not addressing problems, such as a lack of staff and facilities and increases in the cost of malpractice insurance, that weaken the country's health care system to the point where it can barely handle normal activity, let alone a bioterror emergency. The influx of cash for national security contrasts sharply with cutbacks in federal and state funding for general public health. Mass programs such as the one aimed at smallpox vaccination are likely to strain health care resources even further...