State says report wrong; it's ready for bioterrorism

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

Gov. Ben Cayetano and State Health Director Bruce Anderson yesterday hotly disputed the federal government's ranking of Hawai'i as one of two states that are worst-prepared to distribute medicines after a bio-terrorism attack.

"It is absolutely not true that Hawai'i is ill-prepared to deal with bioterrorism," Cayetano said. "Right now at Tripler Army Hospital, there are about 40 tons of medicine, of vaccine, of all the kind of things that this state would need to distribute if we were hit by any kind of bioterrorist attack, and we have in place the procedures to do it."

Anderson said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had no current information by which to determine Hawai'i's preparedness because the state will not submit its latest progress report until Monday.

"Every indication we have is that we're doing great and we're one of the leading states," he said. "At the very best, the information the federal government has is 6 months old."

Federal officials said while states have made considerable progress in preparing for bioterrorism, much work remains and only one state, Florida, is fully prepared to receive and distribute medicine and vaccines.

Hawai'i and Wisconsin were ranked last in the country for preparedness, according to federal officials who use a traffic light metaphor to characterize readiness for 62 locations.

Only Florida is in the "green" category, meaning ready to go, pending a rehearsal. Its rating is "green-minus."

Cayetano charged that the timing of the report was meant to influence Tuesday's gubernatorial election, and noted that President Bush's brother Jeb Bush is running for re-election as governor of Florida. "I find it really interesting that the only state that got an A-plus was Florida, where Jeb Bush is fighting for his political life," Cayetano said.

Two states are "red-plus" — Wisconsin, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson's home state, and Hawai'i — meaning they are making little or no progress.

Anderson said the information cited is "dated and lacks objectivity."

The comments about Hawai'i lagging the nation come from information reported by the states in May, he said, before the state received $9 million from the federal government "which has gone toward enhancing preparedness across the board."

Anderson said he was puzzled by the timing of the release yesterday, the deadline for states to update the federal government. Hawai'i received a short extension to the deadline and will provide its update on Monday.

Bart Aronoff, manager of the state's bioterrorism preparedness program, said "we're making excellent progress."

Both Anderson and Aronoff said they were surprised at the low ranking because Steven Bice, who runs the program for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was here last week and said officials were "very pleased" with the state's progress.

Advertiser staff writer Johnny Brannon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.