Public officer exposed to public scrutiny

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), revealed yesterday that he is among approximately 3,000 heart patient whose medical information was potentially exposed to public scrutiny when an unencrypted government laptop was stolen from the car of a National Institute of Health researcher.

Several questions remain:
- Whether the NIH has an adequate system for contacting affected patients
- Why the computer was not encrypted
- Why the NIH's tally of affected patients was initially short by more than 500.

Michael Cronin . . . said the agency had sent him mail in 2006 and that he had not moved since then. "And today they say they had an incorrect address?" he asked.

Surely, whoever stole the laptop has better things to do than look up who has been using Viagra.