On July 14, The New York Times reported
that scientists at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) had mishandled dangerous strains of anthrax and bird flu,
failed to follow correct safety procedures after employees were
exposed, and neglected to notify the appropriate supervisors for
about one month. This is not the first time we’ve heard about lax
oversight and dangerous disregard at the CDC. In 2006, for
instance, the agency “accidentally sent live anthrax to two other
labs, and also shipped out live botulism bacteria.”
Inadvertent biological warfare sounds bad enough, but the CDC’s
errors are really just an amuse-bouche in the banquet of
government failures. In the past year alone, observes Veronique de
Rugy, we’ve seen the amazingly botched rollout of Obamacare’s
website exchange, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ inept
handling of health care for former members of the armed forces, and
the Internal Revenue Service politicizing right-wing groups’
applications for nonprofit status. All of which took place against
the background hum of death and disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While the nation’s attention tends to be narrowly focused on the
day-to-day problems related to each of these disasters, they
comprise only the most recent and visible signs of the fundamental
flaws that plague government intervention.
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