Bioterrorism Vs Biological Warfare

Bioterrorism is the biggest part of Code Orange and how new and threatening it is. As Derek says on page 138,”But here's my guess: what a terrorist could do is get hold of Mitty. He gets sick and they’re golden. They launch the first successful bioterrorist attack on America.” What Derek is saying is that if a terrorist got hold of a deadly virus that people aren't vaccinated for, they can launch an epidemic that could wipe out a country. What makes smallpox perfect for terrorists is that it hasn't been a thing since the 70’s. This means that people are not currently vaccinated and would never guess that they have it. Clearly, bioterrorism is almost if not more scary than normal terrorism

“Bioterrorism remains a major threat for the United States despite more than $65 billion spent on protecting the country from myriad dangers, the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center said in its latest report Wednesday. The center's Bio-Response Report Card evaluated U.S. preparedness for countering threats from bioterrorism and found the country remains vulnerable to multiple threats and "largely unprepared for a large-scale bioterrorist attack."”(UPI.com, 2011). There have been over a dozen leading U.S. bio-defense experts that have taken part in figuring out where we are exactly as a county and what the effects of a terroristic attack

A governmental concern is that a bioterrorist attack will trigger panic amongst the population. Panic refers to a group response where intense fear causes people to be concerned with only their survival. While actual panic is rare, there are certain factors that could cause panic in the event of a bioterrorist attack, including limited medical resources where “first come, first serve” applies, a perception that there is poor

Agroterrorism is a direct attack against livestock or crops in an effort to damage a food supply. An attack against our food supply is an attack on one of the many critical infrastructures that our country has. A successful terrorist attack against this sector would be staggering to the country. In 2001 the food distribution industry registered 9.7 percent of the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product and generated cash receipts that exceeded 991 billion dollars (Chalk, 2003, pg. 3). The food distribution industry also makes up for a significant part of the work force in the United States. This is all effected if we were attacked biologically. The problem with a bio attack on our food supplies is lag time. Lag time is the time it would take for the federal government and general population to realize there is a problem with our food. It would then take a long period of time for the government to trace back the source of the large scale disease outbreak and determine whether it was a naturally occurring event, an accidental exposure, or a malicious attack. During this time food production would have to cease to stop the spread of the illnesses. The country’s finances would then be affected. Not to mention the amount of money it would take to trace the spread back to the source and destroy the livestock or crops responsible to stop the continued spread of disease. Even when food production began again the general population of the country would be leery about buying certain food products at first. This is what happened to the Blue Bell ice cream company after their listeria outbreak. Staggering our food supply and affecting America’s financial stability is exactly what terrorist organizations would love to achieve. In fact in 2002 American and allied troop raided a cave in Eastern Afghanistan and discovered thousands of documents outlining the U.S. agriculture system (Olson, 2012, pg. 1).

One of the world’s most dreaded plagues for centuries, smallpox is now eradicated. Vaccination programs were pushed worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the disease was eliminated from the world. This push resulted in the last naturally occurring case in the world being almost 40 years ago. Once eradicated the once routine or mandatory vaccinations were stopped for the general public and it was deemed no longer necessary to prevent the disease. Although currently eradicated worldwide, two medical laboratory stockpiles still remain in Russia and the United States. With these stockpiles in existence the possibility of bio terrorism emerges and fear of these stockpiles getting into the wrong hands and being weaponized for

Chemical terrorism is the use of natural or synthetic substances such as mustard gas to kill a group of civilians (Freedmen 1). There is also such thing as bioterrorism. Bioterrorism is the use of a biological weapon against a civilian population such as smallpox and fungus (Hoyel 1). Chemical and biological terrorism is very dangerous because it intends to kill a lot of people at a time. Terrorists can get their hands on chemicals but it is much easier for them to get biologics (biological agents) because they are harder to detect and are cheaper to make.

A bioterrorism attack is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. Bioterrorism agents can be separated into three categories, depending on how easily they can be spread and the severity of illness or death they cause. Category A agents are considered the highest risk and Category C agents are those that are considered emerging threats for disease. Bioterrorism is an issue and has been an issue for many years. This being the case every citizen and health care professional needs to be prepared for an attack. However most people are not fully prepared for a bioterrorism attack to occur. For one citizens are not educated on illnesses that could be used and they are now choosing not use countermeasures like vaccinations against the agents that would be used for a bioterrorism attack. The next issue we run into is that health care workers are not fully trained on what to do if a

A death by a biological agent is not a quick one; in most instances it is a slow and very painful death. A fear such a death would definitely incite panic, making it much more difficult for rescue crews and medical personnel to respond, causing the problem to grow out of control (Eitzen 445) With nuclear terrorism, most deaths are immediate due to the sheer force of the explosion of a bomb. This may be startling to think about but death would be swift with possibly very little suffering if any at all. Another possible effect of bioterrorism is the possible lowering of one’s immune system due to lack of sleep caused by fear or by sickness itself, therefore making the disease much harder to fight off. Nuclear terrorism is archaic and unlikely yet it is still in the public eye so often we no longer realize it, yet Bioterrorism is hardly ever mentioned and it much more likely a dirty bomb going off in the middle of a city is not as likely as a weaponized strain of ebola being realeased into the air in this day and age. The inexpensiveness of production, easy distribution and mental toll Bioterrorism takes; it is a very real and very potent threat to our society as a whole. And it is high time it was recognized as

One researcher determined that a hand full of biologists and $10,000 could be used to produce biological weapon agents. This stands in starch opposition to the amount of funding, expertise, and obstacles that terrorist would need to overcome to develop their own nuclear programs (Levi, 2007, p.1). Some states have attempted to create their own nuclear weapons; this takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish. The materials needed are hard to acquire and special equipment is needed to make the process work. Biological agents on the other hand are, as demonstrated by the researchers assessment, are cheap and relatively easy.

Something that Bioterrorists don’t always take into consideration is that often their plans for death and destruction go far beyond the realms that they had planned. Sometimes their chosen weapon of mass destruction travels past the area that they wanted and into the rest of the continent. This case is represented in the Siege of Caffa. In 1346 a Mongolian group called the Tartars attempted to seize the Christian city of Caffa, only to be immensely struck down with an outbreak of Plague (bioterrorism.com 3). The outbreak became so detrimental, that bodies literally began to pile up. As a last resort, the Tartars used their catapults to hurl disease-ridden corpses over the city walls into Caffa, hoping to infect and kill the citizens. Unfortunately, their plan was very successful, and a deadly outbreak of plague struck the people of Caffa. However what the Tartars didn’t realize was that while the majority of the population of Caffa died, some escaped on boats and fled to cities all over Europe, taking the deadly disease with them. It wasn’t long after that before the entire European continent was overwhelmed by Plague. Through this event, it is easy to see how quickly and simply an incident of bioterrorism can turn into a worldwide catastrophe.

For example, if a large city such as Chicago was to be exposed to a Category A pathogen such as smallpox, an extraordinary demand would be placed upon the medical institutions and their staffs. If a large enough area was to be affected, it would require some sort of quarantine by the military, in order to control the spread of the virus. This action in itself may cause a rise in fear and lead to an overwhelming panic from the people in the area. A complete population terror could arise quickly; causing people to do things such as overgeneralize symptoms and act irrationally in the time of distress. So not only is there a physical stressor present with the use of bio-agents, there is a psychological one as well. It is very difficult to determine when these so called bioterrorism attacks will occur, as they are very hard to predict. However, with all the advancement in research and the number of nations jumping on the bandwagon, it can be assumed more will occur. This means that there should be some type pre-planning done in order to handle a bio-attack

Biological weapons are being developed and pursued secretly in other countries by either individuals or groups for the purpose to incapacitate or kill humans, livestocks, or crops. In today’s world America has ignored, overlooked, and undervalued the threat of biological attacks. America has experienced biological attacks in the past but is America prepared for it? America may have experienced biological attacks, but America is not prepared for biological attacks.

There have been many cases of bioterrorism, but one of the main cases occurred in 1984 in the United States. Some of the followers of a religious group wanted three seats in their local court. Worried that they might not win the seats, the followers decided to use Salmonella to incapacitate the voting population, so they can win the seats. It was inserted into salads at a very popular salad bar in the area. 751 people were infected in this attack, but no one died (Wikipedia, 2016). Terrorists can now use the simplest of things to get to us, but the source of it is the virus. Lawrence showed us how a genetically-modified measles virus, originally designed as a cure for cancer, turned into a virus and nearly wiped out the worldwide population. But, what if this was done on purpose? When comparing the number of cancer patients to the American population, the cancer patients take up less than 1% of the whole population. However, measles is contagious, so the real percentage of those who would be affected would be higher than 1% (American Cancer Society, 2016). So, if this “cure” was made with the intention of wiping out a population, this would have been a great success to

“What once required an expensive laboratory may now be done by a skilled individual in a garage, and will be difficult to prevent or detect.” This quote was taken from an article by H.J. Jansen, Professor at the University of Amsterdam and member of the Ministry of Defence in the Netherlands. The statement made addresses the possibility of bioterrorism, the intentional use of biological agents to damage a population's infrastructure, or significantly impact a group of people. In today's world, the possibility and danger of bioterrorism is as great as it has ever been, and America needs to be prepared for it. Between the massive amounts of biological agents, the countries and other groups of people capable of creating them, and the lack of defenses

Bioterrorism would be the actual attack or release of of any sort of virus, or germ to harm people. Bioterrorism can travel through society in many ways. It can be released through the air, water, food, or animals/insects. The disease can be mended to cause different types of symptoms to spread a disease fast, or make people have catastrophic deaths. There are many worries in the world that diseases such as Ebola, the plague, or smallpox could be weaponized to wipe out many populations. On the other hand biodefense fights against these attacks, and uses medicine to protect citizens. There have been bioterrorism attacks on the United States in the