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Research Paper On Yersinia Pestis

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The volume of materials that may be weaponized from this category is immense and each requires varying degrees of knowledge, skills, and abilities to create and employ. After reading this week’s course material and a small amount of cursory research on my own, I chose to use the bacterium, Yersinia pestis which can be employed as a biological agent and causes either pneumonic, bubonic, or septicemic plague depending on the method of exposure (Inglesby, T. V., Dennis, D. T., Henderson, D. A., Bartlett, J. G., Ascher, M. S., Eitzen, E., …Tonat, K., 2000, p2282.) Regarding characteristics, this is a bacterium and thus invisible to the naked eye, has a weakness to direct sunlight and heat, and cannot typically survive for long periods outside of a host (Inglesby, T. V., Dennis, D. T., Henderson, D. A., Bartlett, J. G., Ascher, M. S., Eitzen, E., …Tonat, K., 2000, p2289.) The insidious aspect of biological threats is what causes fear in many people and this agent is no different considering initial exposure to onset of symptoms requires an incubation period of one to six …show more content…

When this is coupled with the physical and psychological casualty care costs even a large economy may see lasting damage. The risk is not solely to the attacked however. Any group that uses a biological weapon is likely to lose credibility and become the recipient of major international repercussions. It is perhaps for this reason that the overall likelihood of an organization pursuing or using CBRN weapons is small, between .99% and 1.36% on average (Victor H. Asal , Gary A. Ackerman , R. Karl Rethemeyer, 2012, p248). While it is not possible to know future actions, any entity that chat chose to attack America with this method may well do so with the intention of drawing us into war as was the intent behind many of Al-Qaeda’s

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