"There are holes unfilled in the state and local health system,” the HHS boss declared in answer to a question.

"When there is an massive outbreak of smallpox," for example, there must be a "regional hospital system” to enable us "to have places where we can put [the victims],” Thompson said, indicating that system, though urgently needed, is not yet in place.

"We have disinvested in the local and state health system,” the secretary noted.

He had given the states until April 15 to submit a plan. As of Tuesday, "all but 12” of the states had responded.

He said that HHS was working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that things would improve. He noted that certain appropriations to aid that process should be approved soon by Congress.

"The department is ready to respond,” Thompson assured his audience. "We need to hook up every community for an immediate response from the Center for Disease Control.”

He predicted that when a plan is in place, it will be possible to get life-saving pharmaceuticals to any community "within 12 hours.” In New York, it was done in seven hours after the terrorist attack Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center, he reminded the Press Club.

He promised that smallpox vaccine would be available, and that "every day, we are better prepared than the day before.”

The CDC has been sharply criticized for lack of preparedness after the anthrax attacks, a problem that former CDC communications director Bob Howard attributes to the lack of "clear lines of authority.”

Appearing Tuesday night on "The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel, Howard recalled the involvement of "an extraordinary number of political and federal agencies that got involved in a biological event that had never happened before in this country.”

That kind of confusion is a thing of the past, according to Thompson. He told the Press Club that next time the feds will be ready.

As for localities seeking a supply of smallpox vaccine to meet what some see as a potential bioterrorist threat on U.S. soil, the word from Thompson is: "Don’t seek it. We’ve got it. And we’ll take care of it.”

Sen. Hatch Dissents on Human Cloning

Meanwhile, a ranking Republican on Capitol Hill has failed to dissuade the Bush administration from its opposition to any human cloning of any kind.

On being informed that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, had come out earlier in the day in favor of therapeutic, but not reproductive, human cloning, the secretary said President Bush’s position against both kinds of cloning was firm.

"We remain opposed to therapeutic and reproductive human cloning,” he said, "and we support the Brownback bill [for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.],” which would outlaw both.

Thompson Ignores Medical Privacy

Several questions regarding the boiling-hot issue of medical privacy were submitted to Thompson but ignored during the Q&A.

The widespread furor over the Hillary-style invasions of privacy stemming from HHS rulemaking under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) began when the original rule was promulgated in the latter part of the Clinton administration.

The issue has hounded Thompson almost from the moment the Bush administration came to power. Critics have argued that the new administration has made an already bad situation worse. NewsMax.com has covered this issue extensively for months.

Before the question-and-answer period, the moderator noted that a great number of written questions had been submitted and that he would "read as many as time will allow.”

It is not known what influence, if any, other HHS officials seated at the head table exerted on the Q&A screening.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Bioterrorism

Bush Administration

Health Issues

Homeland/Civil Defense

Privacy

War on Terrorism

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