Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remains largely uninvolved, disconnected from the planning loop and inadequately financed for the task. State and local public health surveillance needs to be strengthened. And if a bioterror attack is recognized early, many lives can be saved. Consider what might actually happen if a pound or two of dried anthrax were released into the air of New York City. Many thousands of people might be exposed, but only a small fraction of them would get sick and die.
Anthrax incubates silently in the body for three days to several weeks after exposure.
Then the first symptoms appear. Virtually no doctor in the United States has seen a case of anthrax or knows how to diagnose it. Many days might pass before it would finally become apparent that New York had been hit with anthrax. The F.B.I. would come under excruciating pressure to find the perpetrator, who would be long gone, and the trail might have gone cold. Everyone in the city would wonder if he had been exposed and whether another attack might occur.