Posted on 10/06/2014 2:07:18 AM PDT by markomalley
ISIS may already be thinking of using Ebola as a low-tech weapon of bio-terror, says a national security expert, who notes that the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” and terror groups like it wouldn’t even have to weaponize the virus to attempt to wreak strategic global infection.
Such groups could simply use human carriers to intentionally infect themselves in West Africa, then disseminate the deadly virus via the world’s air transportation system. Or so says Capt. Al Shimkus, Ret., a Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.
“The individual exposed to the Ebola Virus would be the carrier,” Shimkus told Forbes. “In the context of terrorist activity, it doesn’t take much sophistication to go to that next step to use a human being as a carrier.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
May? after 3,000 articles on the topic and with 3,000 westerners in ISIS, it's a guarantee that they have the idea. I won't critique the methodology, but we know they are thinking about it.
Does an Ebola carrier get all those virgins?
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
But, but, but ...
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told “Fox News Sunday” that it was “far-fetched” to think that terrorist would use this as a bio-weapon.
How many more lies will be coming from this administration?
With winter in the northern hemisphere approaching, how viable will Ebola be in cold climates?
They are way too late, Obama beat them to it.
How tough would it be for ISIS to send infected terrorists to the US when Obama won’t even curtail flights fron infected areas and our politically correct Homeland Security is body searching little old ladies and infants looking for terrorists?
Seeing that Ebola isn’t even contagious until symptoms appear, a terrorist would have a hard time infecting himself with the hope of infecting a large number of other people before he dies. Even a terrorist doesn’t function too well when debilitated by high fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea.
It wouldn’t be that hard to infect a few if they had a handler. Epidemics start with small numbers. Then, if they were smart, they would then kill themselves (or be killed) before the disease progressed very far to minimize being found out.
A dozen infected Muslims riding NYC subways for a few weeks is a scary thought....
If this is your line of thought, you still think like a liberal DemMom. No ex to it.
No, I am a scientist. I look at actual virus biology, symptoms, and so forth, and base my statements on what is possible, not on scenarios best suited to movie plots.
Ebola apparently likes the cold. I remained confused about that one.
Even at 4 degrees Celsius [if I understand Celsius correctly ...]
PA Engineer posted this to me this morning:
The survival of filoviruses in liquids, on solid substrates and in a dynamic aerosol
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2010.04778.x/full#f1
Data on the survival of filoviruses on substrates and in liquid media presented in this study should be set within the context of the infectivity of the viruses. It has been reported that the infectious dose of filoviruses for mice and nonhuman primates is low (e.g. 400 PFU, Johnson et al. 1995; 1 PFU, Bray et al. 1999). Studies with the wild-type ZEBOV and MARV strains used in these survival studies in a susceptible mouse model demonstrated 100% mortality with <10 TCID50 of either virus by the aerosol or intraperitoneal challenge route (M.S. Lever, personal communication). These low infectious dose reports suggest that if the initial viral titre is high, infectious quantities of viable virus could be recovered from samples stored at +4°C for periods of up to 46 days in liquid media, and from samples dried onto glass at both 26 and 50 days. This demonstrates the need for good control measures when handling and disposing of clinical samples that may be contaminated with filoviruses.
Don’t worry. President Ebola has sent ‘corpse-men’ to deal with ‘ebol-ee’ in all 57 states.
Ebola is not contagious until symptoms appear, and can only be spread through direct contact with infected bodily fluids. Early in the disease, the viremia is very low, and the disease is minimally contagious. As the disease progresses, it becomes more contagious through vomit, diarrhea, and possibly through the skin (because it seeps out of blood vessels and oozes through the flesh) at later stages. By the time the terrorist becomes maximally contagious, he will be utterly debilitated.
I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where a terrorist would be able to efficiently spread the disease. I suppose a terrorist could make himself sick, then other terrorists would force people to touch him or his infected fluids...but then, people would know something was up, and the chance of secondary transmission is low because they would have already sought medical attention. It's probably easiest for terrorists to make snuff videos, which they have been doing a lot lately.
Even worse is an ebola infectee suicide bomber, who plants the bomb inside his/her body, and sprays their bodily fluids upon death plus creates ebola aerosols that victims will inhale before even the smart ones stop breathing.
“Even a terrorist doesn’t function too well when debilitated by high fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea.”
There’s an incubation period. You can even see for yourself:
Moment Ebola victim arrived in Dallas and greeted smiling relative after flight from Liberia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3211481/posts
[Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, is pictured arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport]
— I can’t load a photo with this connection, sorry
Terrorists cower before real pain or torture which is why many of them resort to suicide bombings. Having a bomb inside your body, plus being infected with ebola is a deadly combination, that way, they will spray organs and fluid all over people and all over the place, even sending airborne droplets even further. They would do a lockdown on the building, but with enough people, that’s still a large number of people (hundreds to thousands) who will die in a locked down airport, and too many infectees to effectively administer full ebola treatment to.
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