BioWatch is the classic federal government boondoggle, that is boondoggle with a B as in Billions of our tax dollars. It starts with an incident, the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, and then there is an over-reaction by Congress and lawmakers, anxious to be seen as doing something. The only winners out of this BioMess have been the contractors who sold the system to the government.
I know from my personal contacts with public health officials that there is little confidence in the system. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not want to call them "false positives" but, if the detection system causes the decision-makers to inappropriately huddle in a quandary as to what is the best action to protect the public, then you might as well call a pig a pig. However, they keep trying to put lipstick on the pig.
The Blue Ribbon Commission that recently released their report, A National Blueprint for Biodefense: Leadership and Major Reform Needed to Optimize Efforts,led me to do an interview with former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, who was co-chair of that panel. Watch for that interview to be published in the coming weeks.
