Letter from America
I am sitting in a scene of terror. With devious intent, Senator Bill Frist has assembled us to an 8am breakfast meeting in the very Senate building that was shut down by anthrax last October. And the topic of today's meeting? Bioterror!
An assistant hands out coffee, sticky pastries, and the Senator's fear-stoking new book on how to survive when terrorists gas us: When Every Moment Counts. "If deadly spores came through the vents in this room RIGHT NOW," he opens, "what would YOU do?" We each stop chewing our pastries.
Frist wants to be Bush's vice president in 2004. He is a trained doctor, and works this into every sentence. "As the Senate's only MD, people are always asking me, 'Bill, is my son going to die if he gets chickenpox? Should I buy him a gas mask?' And I tell them just to be alert, to trust their doctors, and that America can be safe again." He breaks up these reassuring words with slides that show bacteria munching on babies' skin and alarming messages:
The Risk Is Increasing
Our Vulnerability Is High
Now that we are "very afraid" and we accept that future attacks are inevitable, he pounces with his three solutions. For individuals and families, we must have a communication plan, a destination plan, and - no surprises - a gas mask. For government, it should give tax breaks to pharmaceutical giants so they can altruistically develop cures for good American people. And we must all work hard to "understand the terrorist mind".
Readers may remember those American TV public information commercials from the 1950s that gave instructions for what to do if a Soviet nuclear bomb lands on you. "Duck and cover," said the lantern-jawed presenter. The point of the commercials was not to offer helpful guidance - covering their eyes wouldn't have done much for those nuked in Hiroshima - but to strike an uneasy feeling among the public. There is real cause to fear, but don't worry, because the political and business elite knows what to do.
With embarrassing unscrupulousness, Senator Frist wheels on the CEO of a pharmaceutical giant who tells us that his firm is developing drugs because we must all do what we can do defeat the bad guys. The Senator and the CEO unveil the bill they wish to pass into law - extra government funding for pharmaceuticals, less tax on pharmaceuticals, less regulation on pharmaceuticals, and more public information on the availability of gas masks. Stunning.
The bioterror breakfast was indeed terrifying. We expect some fuelling and exploitation of public anxiety, and some questionable links between politicians and business, but they could at least have the wit to keep it hidden. That is, of course, unless they really believe the solutions to the war on terror are a free reign to corporations and a return to a 1950s witch-hunt mentality. And that is terrifying.
9th May 2002