Former congresswoman says U.S. is ill-prepared for biological attack

Former Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) on Monday said the United States is ill-prepared for a biological attack during an interview Monday on the "Just the News" show with editor-in-chief John Solomon and co-host Amanda Head.

Solomon asked Dr. Hayworth, "Are you concerned that the public health structure that struggled so much with COVID-19 is ill-prepared for any sort of a biological attack?"

"Yes, John. I am," she responded immediately. Hayworth said that one of the biggest problems in the U.S. is "that government's remit has been so badly stretched beyond its wide set of responsibilities that it cannot handle its constitutional responsibilities… as well as it should."

She said during the COVID pandemic, Americans could see issues in the government through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"They are highly bureaucratic, they're not streamlined. They are highly susceptible to political influences," Haworth said. "They need far more transparency, accountability and scrutiny."

The NIH and CDC have been criticized over the last two years for communication during the pandemic. For example, Just the News reported how the CDC acknowledged in mid-January that cloth masks are not as effective at preventing COVID as surgical masks or respirators, despite the fact that experts have been warning about it for months.

Hayworth, an ophthalmologist, said misinformation, including that surrounding COVID, has also damaged the relationship between Americans and the government, but people can trust their healthcare providers.

"Trust is badly damaged," she said. "Americans don't know to whom they can turn for trustworthy information. Usually, though, speaking as a physician, it's their doctors."

However, Hayworth noted, "the entire attitude at the top of our public health apparatus has been wrong." She specifically called out Dr. Francis Collins, the now-former National Institutes of Health director, for going to great lengths to dismiss the theory that COVID was manipulated in a Chinese lab.