U.S. post Office to deliver antidote in case of anthrax attack
President Obama signed an executive order instructing the Post Office to deliver antidotes to citizens in the event of an anthrax attack; the executive order calls for armed escorts to accompany delivery personnel
President Barack Obama has authorized the U.S. Postal Service to deliver self-administered antidotes in the event of a large-scale biological attack. Clyde Middleton >writes in the Washington Examiner that Obama has also asked for a plan that would use federal guns to protect postmen and women while on their delivery route.
Obama issued on 30 December 2009, Executive Order 13528: “Establishing Federal Capability for the Timely Provision of Medical Countermeasures Following a Biological Attack.” Here is the gist of it:
Sec. 2. United States Postal Service Delivery of Medical Countermeasures.
(a) The U.S. Postal Service has the capacity for rapid residential delivery of medical countermeasures for self administration across all communities in the United States. The Federal Government shall pursue a national U.S. Postal Service medical countermeasures dispensing model to respond to a large-scale biological attack.
(b) The Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, in coordination with the U.S. Postal Service, within 180 days of the date of this order, shall establish a national U.S. Postal Service medical countermeasures dispensing model for U.S. cities to respond to a large-scale biological attack, with anthrax as the primary threat consideration.
(c) In support of the national U.S. Postal Service model, the Secretaries of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Defense, and the Attorney General, in coordination with the U.S. Postal Service, and in consultation with State and local public health, emergency management, and law enforcement officials, within 180 days of the date of this order, shall develop an accompanying plan for supplementing local law enforcement personnel, as necessary and appropriate, with local Federal law enforcement, as well as other appropriate personnel, to escort U.S. Postal workers delivering medical countermeasures.
