I getting really concerned (OK, downright scared) about all these possibilities of terrorists using biological weapons against us. Is there any way to reasonably defend oneself against this (or at least reduce the chances)? If they do spread something, is there any real procedure on what to do if you’ve been infected? BTW, I’m old enough to have already been vaccinated against smallpox, but is there different variants of this?
hello! i feel terrible for you americans, so let me say i am sorry. what happened with those terrorist’s was horrible and i hope that the USA finds the men that planned the attack and brings avengence. not much you can probably do against a chemical warfare. most chemicals can get through your skin and don’t have to be breathed into your lungs. so a mask or covering won’t save your life. with germs, you will probably be sick before you even find out that you are infected and it will be too late! smallpox is held by only a few goverments. i do not believe it is deadly more than 20,0 or 30,0%, but it depeneds on how the germ is enginiered. it might be enginiered to be more deadly. your smallpox vaccine was probably not actual smallpox exposure. i cannot think of the germ name but it begins with a “v”; it was given from what doctors call bifurcated needles leaving a mark. because of all of this your body will not have the proper antibodys, not anymore than somebody that did not get the vaccination. best case is to run when you see a chemical weapon! and go see your family doktor! i do not think you will see any chemical attacks although. it takes much technology to create and use as a weapon. if a terrorist had it he would have used it first rather than kill himself.
all i know is that the small pox vaccines wear off after like 10yrs. So you are as screwed as anyone.
The problem with biological warfare is that a disease can be engineered in such that our bodies can’t find a way to defend it. Our immune system won’t be able to recognize what it’s being introduced to, and well, we’ll die. What also sucks is someone can drop a vial of the bubonic plague in New York City, and it will affect all of America. New York is a place where people all over the country come for business. When the people return to their homes, they’re bringing the disease with them and that’s how it spreads. So yeah, biological warfare sucks.
move to canada, eh.
There isn’t much you can do but I wouldn’t spend my time worrying about it either. There are nearly 300 million people in the US, you’re just one. Those aren’t bad odds right there, then figure the odds based on where you go and what you do. If you live in a really populated area or work in a conspicuous government facility you might have something more to wrry about, but still the odds of you getting nailed are still pretty small. you might as well worry about black widow spiders and lightning too.
I’ve considered leaving for a while, but I really do love it here (San Diego), and I also really don’t believe anywhere in the civilized world is safe. Canada? You’re as much as a target as we are, and with the possiblity of people traveling, and airborne stuff, even if it did hit here, it would probably infect there too. I’ve even though of someplace neutral, but that’s the perfect target because nobody would ever suspect it’s a target! It doesn’t accomplish anything per se, but spread fear and have the terrorists show the world that they can do it. Anyway, thanks for all the replies!
Steve, it is good that you are not being paranoid!
Here’s an article from today’s Wall Street Journal that discusses that very topic. Enjoy.
Experts Say Bioterrorism Threat Is Real, Yet Likelihood Is Uncertain
By LAURA JOHANNES and MARILYN CHASE
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon have raised new fears in the U.S. about bioterrorism, the intentional release of harmful biological agents into populated areas. Some people worry that terrorists could unleash illness and death in epidemic proportions by dispersing smallpox, plague or other agents into the air, food or water supplies. How real is this risk, and what is being done to prevent it? Here are some basic questions and answers:
Q: How many harmful agents are there, and which are the biggest threats?
A: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has singled out seven biological agents as the most likely to be a threat. But there are dozens of potential biological weapons. There also are chemical weapons such as mustard gas and nitrogen dioxide, which damage the eyes, skin and respiratory tract and can be fatal in high doses. Sarin, a nerve toxin, killed 12 people and injured thousands more when a Japanese cult poured it in liquid form in Tokyo’s subway in 1995. (see relatedarticle)
Q: How easy is it to make bioterrorism agents, to store them and to disperse them?
A: Not very. Potential bioterror agents come mainly in three forms: viruses, such as smallpox; bacteria, such as anthrax; and natural poisons, such as botulinum toxin. For bacteria and viruses, the first hurdle is to get hold of some – which can be quite difficult. In the case of smallpox, for example, known storehouses are held in only two research laboratories, one in the U.S. and one in the former Soviet Union. However, experts believe it is likely that a small number of rogue states or terrorists may have copies of the lethal virus.
Pathogens or toxins could be placed on a warhead, sprayed from a crop-duster airplane or snuck into the food or water supplies. But in most cases, highly specialized knowledge would be needed to pull this off. Inhaled agents, such as anthrax, for example, would have to be just the right size – about a tenth the size of a human hair – to infiltrate the lungs.
Adding to the difficulty is that many potential bioterror agents are unstable, and likely to lose their potency when exposed to sunlight or when immersed in water. Botulinim toxin, one of the most potent poisons known to mankind, is easy to get, since the bacteria which produce it are present in soil. Small quantities of the toxin are used widely in medicines, ranging from treatments for neurological diseases to antiwrinkle therapies. But most ordinary bacteria don’t make much botulinim, so producing large quantities would require significant biochemical expertise. Moreover, the toxin is “very unstable,” and easily degrades when exposed to chlorine or high temperatures, says Eric A. Johnson, professor of toxicology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult, tried at least three times in the early 1990s to disseminate biological weapons, and failed each time, says Kyle Olson, an Alexandria, Va., consultant who follows the cult’s activities closely. Two of the unsuccessful attempts involved spraying botulinum toxin from trucks driven around Tokyo. Most likely, says Mr. Olson, the toxin was distributed in heavy particles that fell to the ground before they hurt anyone. The cult also released anthrax bacteria from the roof of a Tokyo building, but that attempt also failed to infect anyone. Most likely, Mr. Olson says, the bacteria hadn’t been turned into “spores,” a condition in which they harden to protect themselves from danger. “They probably just hit the ground and died,” he says. He notes that the cult’s scientists were generally engineers so they didn’t have the expertise of trained biochemists.
Q: How would you know if there were an attack?
A: You probably wouldn’t. You might see or hear a suspicious airplane flying overhead, but anything it dropped would be invisible. If authorities suspect an attack, they can perform genetic and biochemical tests to find out what, if anything, was released.
Q: Has there ever been a bioterror event in the U.S.?
A: Yes. The one documented bioterrorism attack involved domestic saboteurs, not foreign terrorists. In September 1984, 751 residents of The Dalles, Ore., came down with diarrhea and stomach upsets after eating at salad bars in about 10 local restaurants. After an extensive investigation, members of a religious commune called Rajneeshpuram admitted pouring salmonella bacteria, a miserable but usually nonlethal bug, on salads and in coffee creamer. They said they wanted to test the bugs as a tool for incapacitating voters on Election Day.
Members of the commune were indicted, pleaded guilty and imprisoned for poisoning the food supply in violation of federal antitampering laws.
Some scholars of bioterrorism believe such a scenario – an attack with consequences that would be awful but largely nonlethal – is more of a near-term threat than the release of a lethal agent such as anthrax because it is technically easier to pull off. “The most likely scenario for a biological-weapons attack [would be] food-borne or beverage-borne attack using salmonella, shigella or staphylococcal toxins,” says Raymond Zilinskas, a senior scientist with the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.
Q: Should I stop drinking tap water?
A: No. Municipal water supplies are actually less vulnerable than bottled water because, in most cases, they are treated with chlorine and filtered. Dr. Zilinskas advises water bottlers and private food service companies to “be careful who you hire.”
Q: What harm would an attack do?
A: That would depend on what was released, and where. Ebola, since it kills quickly, would likely harm just those immediately exposed. Smallpox, since it takes a week or two to appear after exposure, could spread rapidly through the population before it was detected. Routine smallpox vaccination ceased in the U.S. in 1972, after authorities decided the risks involved in giving the vaccine were greater than the risks of getting the disease. Since immunity is believed to wear off in a decade, most Americans would be vulnerable to smallpox, which is frequently lethal. There are only an estimated seven million to 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine available; the U.S. government has contracted for the production of 40 million additional doses.
An agent monitors a security checkpoint at Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s Davey terminal this week (above). Like the airline industry, many sectors are re-evaluating how vulnerable they are to chemical, biological and other forms of terrorist attacks.
Q: Are there antidotes?
A: There are good treatments for many biological weapons, but in some cases, they must be administered quickly to do any good. Antibiotics, for example, can effectively treat anthrax, but only if they are administered before symptoms occur, which could be as soon as a day or two after exposure. An antidote exists for botulinum toxin, but it, too, must be administered before symptoms begin, which could be as soon as 12 hours after exposure.
Q: What are federal, state and local health authorities doing to prepare for a potential attack?
A: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services devotes $300 million a year toward bioterrorism preparedness, of which about half goes to the CDC for detection and treatment. The CDC has a network of 81 state and local laboratories nationwide responsible for rapid detection and diagnosis of illnesses cause by bioterrorism. The agency also has a stockpile of antibiotics and medications for rapid deployment in the event of an attack. Half of this stockpile is on pallets ready to be loaded on aircraft to an affected zone. The other half exists as a “virtual stockpile,” a term used to refer to extra production capacity at the drug companies which the government has arranged to draw from as needed. A CDC drug shipment was rushed to New York in seven hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, but the effort later proved unnecessary because authorities determined that no biological agents had been released.
At the city and county level, some hospitals have emergency plans, but in the cost-cutting era of managed care, many don't. Citizens can inquire at hospitals and public-health departments to see whether there are local plans or resources for emergency preparedness. More details of the U.S. plan are outlined at the Web site www.bt.cdc.gov.
Q: Does it make sense to buy a gas mask just in case?
A: Some gas masks are specially made with filters fine enough to keep out many biological agents. However, they are expensive ($100 to $200), bulky to carry and may not do much good. The reason: Once you know a bioterrorism attack has struck, it is usually too late to put on the mask. "You would pretty much need to wear them 24-7 for them to do any good," says Julie Rawlings, an epidemiologist at the Texas Department of Health. The federal government says it doesn't recommend them.
Q: Should I stock up on antibiotics at home?
A: “No,” says Michael Osterholm, a bioterrorism expert and professor of public health at the University of Minnesota. “The last thing we want people to do is to start self-medicating.” Most people lack the expertise to distinguish a chickenpox blister from a smallpox or anthrax blister, and as a result, they might take drugs unnecessarily. Moreover, experts say, building home stockpiles siphons medication from hospitals and clinics that need them.
It’s also unnecessary, says Scott Lillibridge, special assistant for bioterrorism preparedness to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. “We have a strategic national stockpile tailored to respond to bioterror events, and it can be deployed to anyplace within 12 hours.”
Okay, the good news: smallpox is next to IMPOSSIBLE to obtain; in the entire world there are only two remaining vials of the virus that exist. One in the U.S. at the CDC, the other in a tight facility in Russia. Nobody in the world has enough money to bribe their way to it, which is why smallpox vaccinations aren’t even done anymore. More good news: chemical weapons attacks aren’t as easy as you’d think. It’s actually quite difficult to distribute the toxins “properly”, which is why the Serin attacks in the Tokyo subway were designed to kill thousands, and only got about a dozen. Finally, remember that the terrorists are doing these things to make make attacks of significance, which means they want visual, inonographic assaults–things like physical devastation of the WTC, the Pentagon, etc. They want things that will signify attacts on things that signify America. A successful biowar would be tragic, but wouldn’t produce the same symbolic and emblematic footage for the world to replay as a directed attack on a key structure.
A friend of mine is a professor at Yale who is considered one of the world “experts” on terrorism. She said that the best defense is to have a sealed off area in your home, preferably a basement, stocked with canned essentials. Seal all windows and doors with plastic and listen to the radio for any all clear signal…could be days, weeks, etc. As soon as you hear of an attack, monitor the wind direction. That will give you an idea as to whether you are in immediate damger or not. The Israeli gas mask is the best but hard to find these days. If you find one, bear in mind that more people died in Israel from suffocation while trying to put on their gas mask than those that died from SCUD missle attacks.