The country remains on high alert for a possible terrorist threat and the State Health Department wants Missourians to know this state is ready to deal with any biological or chemical emergency that might come along. Pam Walker, the Director of the Department’s Center for Emergency Response and Terrorism, says emergency preparedness plans have been progressing since the September 11th, 2001, attacks. Walker says several dozen public health and hospital workers have already been given the smallpox vaccine, and everyone else in the state could be vaccinated fairly quickly if such an attack were to take place.
