That concern was reinforced this week by a couple of reports from medical experts. The first suggests it is not always wise to assume healthcare workers will get going when the going gets tough. The second raises serious questions about how the nation is allocating funds for terrorism vs. treatment of more predictable - and probable - causes of death such as heart disease.

The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City set out to look at how many healthcare workers said they would show up for work, depending on the type of emergency. There was some good news: 87 percent of 6,000 workers surveyed in 47 facilities in and around New York said they would be able to go to work in the event of a mass casualty incident, 81 percent for an environmental disaster.

Only 61 percent, however, would show up for a smallpox epidemic, just 48 percent during a SARS epidemic and 57 percent during a "radiological event."

That's a problem, isn't it? Less than half of healthcare workers expect to work during a SARS epidemic, and less than two-thirds if terrorists set off a so-called dirty bomb in the financial district.

"Although we might assume that healthcare employees have an obligation to respond to these high-impact events, our findings indicate that personal obligations, as well as concerns for their own safety, play a pivotal role in workers' willingness to report to work," said Kristine Qureshi, a researcher in the epidemiology department at Columbia.

In New Orleans there has been controversy about whether some police officers simply disappeared when they were needed most, a charge the police chief called "ridiculous." Still, the inability - and perhaps in some cases, the unwillingness - of first responders to respond after Katrina ought to make this new study required reading.

If a significant percentage of healthcare workers in New York - battle-hardened by Sept. 11, 2001, and blessed with good transit and close proximity - say they can't or won't show up when they're needed most, that's a problem.

"These survey results reinforce the idea that workplaces, especially healthcare work settings, should discuss personal emergency planning with their employees. These discussions should take place upon hire and conducted annually," said study co-author Robyn Gershon.

The second report, in this week's British Medical Journal, suggests that the whole anti-terrorism emphasis since Sept. 11 actually may be costing lives. Professor Erica Frank of the Emory University School of Medicine writes the shift away from public health services and towards terrorism prevention has undercut funding for common diseases and natural disasters.

"The most recent effects of these diversions of funding have been seen in the unfolding tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the surrounding area," she wrote, noting that while 3,400 people died in the (Sept. 11) attacks, 5,200 Americans died of common diseases the same day.

Among the points she makes:

- The Bush administration's efforts to immunize healthcare workers against smallpox was a failure, and now seems misguided.

- A portion of FBI funds to investigate healthcare fraud appear to have gone to other purposes, including terrorism prevention.

- Military funds to clean up pollution and meet clean-air standards may be capped.

"Predictable tragedies happen every day. We know strategies to reduce deaths from tobacco, alcohol, poor diet, unintentional injuries, and other predictable causes. And we know that millions of people will die unless we protect the population against these routine causes of death," Frank wrote.

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