Persuasion: The Bloviator is upset with me again. He always gets upset when I write about lawyers or public health. Hits too close to home. The issue this time is my TechCentralStation column on bioterror preparedness. He says its hearsay and not based on fact, and that I would castigate any research paper of the same ilk. I certainly would. Research papers should never be written as opinion pieces. The column is an op/ed, not a research paper, and not investigative journalism. Even then, my points aren’t based on hearsay. They’re based on what reporters from around the country have written about their state and local health department efforts, what the HHS has made public about funding, and what those in the field have said about public health attitudes.

On the smallpox vaccine issue, we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. He doesn’t consider it much of a threat. I do, and I feel strongly that everyone should be given the opportunity to protect themselves from it if they desire. Even Ross admits that the logistics of giving mass vaccinations after an attack would be horrendous and llikely to tax the public health system beyond their means. This is certainly true, and all the more reason we should be offering pre-attack voluntary vaccination.

BY THE WAY: Newsweek did a good job this week of delineating the pros and cons of smallpox preparedness.