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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2003;289:2927-2928.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Chicago—If terrorists released plague bacteria in a metropolitan area containing more than 6 million people, one could reasonably expect fear and panic among the masses once people began turning up sick.

During a bioterrorism exercise, role-playing citizens queue up to receive doses of liquid "antibiotics" to be taken home to be given to children in the family. (Photo credit: Ted Grudzinski)

So when national, state, and local health and safety officials staged mock terror attacks and responses in May in Chicago and Seattle, it was difficult to see what relevance the exercises had to real events, as role-playing "victims" relaxed and joked while being treated for whatever evils had befallen them.

But officials involved in the drills saw the events differently. They said the exercises did help improve the nation's ability to handle such horrors by giving them information and understanding about which parts of their plans . . . [Full Text of this Article]