Heath Department Assures City: Jump in fear toxin cases no cause for alarm

From the second issue of The Gotham Times:

A rise in Gotham's weekly Fear Toxin cases is "no reason to panic," said GHD Commissioner Janice Greetley. While previous weeks have shown an average of 22 citizens infected with the Fear Toxin, 34 people were afflicted in the last week of February, according to Health Department reports. Greetley blamed a "statistical anomaly" for what appeared to be the rise in cases. She said that the bump in Fear Toxin victims was most likely a result of "how our bureaucracy works." "Many of Gotham's health districts were short-staffed due to diversity workshops a couple weeks ago," said Greetley. "This means that cases that normally would be counted the day they are reported actually were counted in the next cycle. It is absolutely nothing to worry about, I can assure the citizens of Gotham." Gotham's Health Department has been under almost constant attack since the night of the Narrows Attack. Its critics charge it with bungling the emergency response to the Fear Toxin, which allowed hundreds of carriers out of the Narrows to infect other Gotham citizens. Greetley has already apologized for how the Health Department handled outbreaks of the Fear Toxin in the weeks after the attack. "Instead of investigating any connection to the Fear Toxin, the Health Department covered up cases in order to avoid panic," charged Gilligan Bradhawk, a "Fear Toxin survivor advocate." The Health Department maintains that while it was slow in realizing that the Fear Toxin was still a threat to Gotham citizens, the error was caused by inconclusive test results and not a desire to deceive.