Biological terrors and potentials

The most deadly and menacing attack using a weapon of mass destruction will not begin with a mushroom cloud overhead, horrific, yet instantly identifiable, as a nuclear strike. Nor will it begin with a panic in a subway below city streets, with people choking on a chemical that is unseen, yet unmistakably poisonous peril.

I just found an interesting recent report (July 2003), which those interested in defense against bioterror would find interesting (It's a .pdf document, so it may take a bit to load, not too long though):

Homeland Insecurity: Building the Expertise to Defend America from Bioterrorism

Here is an article discussing the report:

As bioterror threat grows, federal capacity to respond shrinks

The federal government’s capacity for anticipating and responding to a terrorist attack with biological weapons is diminishing at the same time the threat is growing. That’s the conclusion of a new report by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, based on interviews with dozens of biodefense experts in and out of government and an analysis of staffing data at five key agencies.

The agencies included in the analysis are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Food and Drug Administration, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The report, “Homeland Insecurity: Building the Expertise to Defend America from Bioterrorism,” found that half of the federal scientific and medical personnel who work in biodefense at those agencies will be eligible for retirement over the next five years. The demand for experts in a number of areas, including genetics, epidemiology, communicable diseases, microbiology and pharmacology, is increasing in both the public and private sectors, while the supply of skilled personnel in those areas is decreasing.

“The fact is, we don’t know what we need. Nobody’s asked the question,” said Tara O’Toole, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies. Biological weapons have the potential to be as devastating as nuclear weapons, but because they are easier to acquire, develop and deploy, and harder to track and detect, she and others believe they represent the greatest national security challenge facing the United States in the near future.

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