posted June 15, 2006 09:45 PM              

In a major speech at a conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bloomberg boldly opened fire on the very people who had invited him, accusing the CDC of failing the city on a variety of fronts.

"I really don't know how anyone can justify a distribution of bioterrorism funds that awards $8.20 per person to North Dakota when New York City gets less than $3 per person," said Bloomberg, who demanded a thorough overhaul of the CDC's method for allocating the funds.

"The only rational system for apportioning these funds ought to be population density and risk," he said. "Unfortunately, these clearly are not the yardsticks that are being used."

His strong words came as he also announced the city will revise its health code to clarify, among other things, New York's power to quarantine people in health emergencies.

His comments also marked the Republican's latest clash with the White House.

Bloomberg, who endorsed President Bush, ripped the federal government for its distribution of funds to hospitals for disaster preparedness. He said the city is 42nd out of 54 states and cities in per capita funding from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.

"Like the distribution of homeland security money, which cut funding to New York City this year by 40% - when they said we didn't have any national icons - this is not just absurd, it is shameful," he said.

Bloomberg said the nation can no longer afford to "play politics with preparedness" in the same way that the nation can't permit "ideology and wishful thinking" to continue to trump science in public health decision-making.

The mayor urged the federal government to identify reducing chronic disease as the "key objective" of the nation's agriculture, nutritional and health care financing policies.

Bloomberg cited obesity and diabetes resulting from obesity as growing major public health care problems in the country.

"Nobody is willing to stand up and focus on it, and it will require social changes forced on people by law, as well as social changes that people take up voluntarily," he said, without elaborating.

CDC officials praised Bloomberg for his public health advocacy but said some of his assertions were misleading.

New York gets more in total CDC bioterrorism funding than most other localities but that's not entirely reflected in the per capita breakdown, said the CDC's Dr. Richard Besser.

The CDC provided New York State with $32 million last year for chronic disease prevention and health promotion, and some portion of that was provided to the city, a CDC spokesman said.

On the local level, Bloomberg said the city is in the midst of revising the city health code for the first time in nearly 50 years.

"It will update and clarify the city's authority to, for example, impose quarantines, detain patients, mandate isolation, promote vaccination and treatment, order environmental cleanups and institute other measures," he said.

With News Wire Services