
Fire Dept. Drill on Bioterror Is Set for Today
New York Times; B9
O'Donnell, Michelle
[10/15/2003]
The New York City Fire Department is going to test its responses to a bioterror attack on Staten Island on Wednesday, providing fake smallpox vaccinations for every emergency response worker in the city borough. In reality, the roughly 700 workers will receive influenza vaccinations, but the maneuver will test how fast the agency responds in a crisis. In addition, the department will test its new recall system that brings emergency response workers to their job sites but not necessarily to the location of a crisis. A review of emergency response after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan found that the department was too quick to call all responders to the towers, which could have left other parts of the city vulnerable to attack.
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