Project Bioshild

The first major bioterror event in the United States--the anthrax attacks in October 2001--was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.

I believe these are fair assessments, there are politicians at the top of our government that need a “Wake up call”. The book though well written became very difficult to follow. There was quite a bit of jumping around in time throughout the book. I did understand they were trying to follow a particular subject. There were many names of scientists, foreign and American, politicians, foreign and American, with the names of foreign countries, with their current and previous names. Reading Germs was a bit of a history lesson for me. I’ve thought the US government is supposed to protect its citizens. Germs reveals some significant misgivings our US government has. Though given abundant information and data from leading scientists and researchers, the government still made no head way in the development of mass production of vaccines that would save American citizens if biological attacks did happen. Critical decisions were made based on the amount of money that would be needed to front the production of vaccines, protective gear or even education to the medical community on the front lines of any impending attacks. Germs, gives a revealing look at the biological weapons programs that have existed in the US, Russia and Iraq in the past and that likely still exists

In the article Brill does an exceptional job of starting off analyzing the then and now of security of the country. Highlighting the extensive efforts of the country to effectively respond to the attack of 9/11. Emphasizing the billions of dollars that the government has poured into new technology and agencies that can better prepare for biological terrorist attacks. Brill captured the attention of many readers when expressing that terrorism cannot be stopped because it's constantly evolving. He feels that the government should come up with rational ideas that can deal with the ever changing terrorism threat instead of creating policies off of current headlines that dominates the day.

The fear of a Chemical or Biological attack has been a concern to many governments. These attacks, either by state agencies or individuals, have caused loss of life and the United States has not been spared in this forms of attacks.

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).

“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

Project Bioshield was signed into law on July 21, 2004, by President George W. Bush after he proposed this project at the 2003 State of the Union address in response to the 2001 anthrax attacks. “Project BioShield is a comprehensive effort overseen

“Only yesterday mankind lived in fear of the scourges of smallpox, cholera, and plague………….. Today we are concerned with a different kind of hazard that lurks in our environment—a hazard we ourselves have introduced into our world as our modern way of life has evolved.”

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

Everyday, people all over the world are suffering from life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and chicken pox. Diseases may not seem like that big of a problem to us, but that is only because we rarely have to deal with such problems due to our blessing of herd immunity inside American borders. If you are a citizen of the United States, you probably know about the safety and protection we are provided by living here. Consequently, you may attribute our security to government and troops, the protection of our health provided to United States’ citizens is the backbone of what continues to grow our population, better our country, and prevent epidemic outbreaks. Scientists and doctors play a

The US right now is taking military and counterterrorism actions, but it is not enough to stop them. Bioterrorism is harder to stop because you won't know whether it is a deliberate outbreak by terrorist group or a natural outbreak of disease (Okoth 2). Bio Attacks are not only deadly to people but also the environment according to Naftali Okoth “dual threats of emerging infections and bioterrorism would pose a major conceptual and technical challenges for a regions intelligence

Bioterrorism has been on the forefront of consideration since the bombing of the twin towers in New York City, on September 11, 2001. Specifically smallpox a considered biological weapon may be used to cause mass destruction. The last naturally acquired case of smallpox in the world occurred in 1977, consequentially we have stopped vaccination and those under 30 have little immunity to smallpox (Ford, 2003). Initial symptoms include high fever, fatigue, head and backaches, death which may occur in up to 30% of cases and an incubation period in about 12 days (range: 7 to 17 days) following exposure (Ford, 2003). Military regard smallpox as a means for enemies to use an unconventional tactic to gain advantage having been used most likely

I enjoyed reading your post for this weeks discussion. I too feel that our food and water supply is an honest target when it comes to a biological attack. Many today go without food and water here in America today and as a result they commit crimes to fulfill a fundamental requirement. No excuses here, but wha would you do to feed your family, now think about that on a larger scale if the food supply got cut, destroyed or it was contaminated in some way. The amount of recovery time to recoup could be up to months, but people still need to eat so the wave of fear would be substantial. After taking an emergency management course here through AMU, we had an honest discussion about our personal level of readiness. It was an eye opener. I

Biosecurity as a definition, according to the textbook, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism Containing and Preventing Biological Threats, by Jeffrey R. Ryan, is the measures taken to help protect a nation’s food supply, as well as, agricultural resources from a biological terrorist attack (Ryan, 2016, p. 26). Similarly, the term Biodefense as a definition, according to the textbook Biosecurity and Bioterrorism Containing and Preventing Biological Threats, by Jeffrey R. Ryan, is a procedure designed, by a nation, to protect and improve biological defenses in the case of an attack (Ryan, 2016, p. 26). Why is bioterrorism such an extremely effective way to bring terror to divergent countries? Pursuing this further, most of the common biological agents found in pathogens are obtained from a natural environment (Ryan, 2016, p. 31). In fact, these “biological