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extremely dangerous but only some know the true magnitude behind it. Joseph M. Henderson is the Chief of Program Operations for the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Initiative at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He explains that Bioterrorism is extremely dangerous because it could wipe out an entire town and no one would know who did it or how they got it. The illness or virus would go unnoticed until several patients show up at a hospital with the same symptoms, but until that happens many could die. Some of the viruses or illnesses that can be used in bioterrorism are: Smallpox, Anthrax, Plague, Botulism, Tularaemia, Filoviruses, and Arenaviruses. These could cause sickness to the point of death in some cases or severe injury. These viruses are categorized in category A because they are contagious, can cause social disruption, high mortality and require special attention.
Bioterrorism is not a thing of the present. It has existed for many years, for example in 1995, Sarin gas was used by the Aum Shinryko Cult in Tokyo, which killed 12 people and injured hundreds. It has always existed, but in today's world with all technology it seems that it could be used with much more ease and accuracy then 20 years ago.
Henderson states that it could be possible for an ordinary person to find information on chemical agents and infectious diseases. So the argument is the following, what can our government do to prevent bioterrorism and prevent the wrong people from accessing this kind of information. Well the Government is way better prepared today then it was 16 years ago. Today Congress is in support of federal, state, and local bioterrorism preparedness and response efforts. This means if bioterrorism where to happen, there would be measures taken immediately to prevent further outbreaks. Unfortunately the government can only do something when the virus or illness is released into the population, so there really isn't any way to prevent bioterrorism. What the government can do to (in a way) prevent, is monitor and block information on biochemical agent and other bioterrorism information. On the other hand this breaks an amendment, "Freedom of Press." So how far can the government go in protecting us without taking away our rights? That is the question that has been a problem for many years.
I believe that yes, it does break an amendment, but honestly who wants to know how to kill or hurt people with biochemicals. Information like this should be blocked, because there are a lot of crazy people in the world and this information shouldn't be available to them. I believe that if you can kill off a group of people with that kind off information then it shouldn't be accessible to the average person.
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/henderson.html
This article made me think of microbes in a whole new form! Possibly killing an entire population from toxic chemical agents? Now that is for lack of a better word, crazy! When I read this article it brought me back to a movie I’ve seen, I believed called “Outbreak.” If I can recall correctly it was about a monkey who had a virus and brought it to another country. This virus ended up killing people and villages/cities were shut down because of it. Although I don’t believe it was intentional it is similar to bio-terrorism. I agree that information of this sort shouldn’t be allowed and it should be better protected. But with the Internet and all this other new technology, I’m sure information of this sort is already out there and can’t be destroyed. I think the only thing the government can do is like the blog stated, if anything like bio-terrorism happens make sure that there are measures taking immediately to stop it. This also makes me wonder if the government does search for people putting out this kind of information? I also agree with your statement that it does break an amendment, but who wants to know how to kill/hurt people with bio chemicals. This also makes me wonder if keeping people safe or freedoms that were established many years ago are in question?
ReplyDelete-Angelo V.
I understand where this is coming from. Bio-terrorism has been an effective way to inflict casualties, especially during war, mostly due to the fact that it can't be traced back easily as to who did and also because once a breakout happens, several people are already sick or dying before the government can either cure the sickness or quarantine the place. The government has to realize that certain bio chemicals shouldn't be exposed to the public, just because they are too dangerous for people to know about. It doesn't matter if they are impending their rights, as long as it's keeping them safe.
ReplyDeleteAs if terrorism wasn’t scary enough, there comes along bioterrorism to scare us even more. It’s frightening to think that microbes, something we can t even see, can be used as a weapon to kill many people. I knew that biological agents could be used as a weapon, but I had no idea that we have no real way of preventing these attacks from happening. We can only prepare for the worst to happen once it does. And we can’t really do much to prevent people from accessing this type of information. It can be accessed from books, videos, and the Internet; the government can only do so much to prevent this.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that can be done about the prevention of these bioterrorism attacks is creating cure for these deadly microbes. This would make us better prepared in case of a bioterrorism attack. If this could be achieved then the world would be a much safer place.
You all raise many interesting and valid points. I've worked with a colleague at one of the national laboratories who is part of a monitoring program that constantly checks air samples in big cities for known microbial bioterrorism agents. Bioterrorism goes back thousands of years before we even knew about microbes. It is one of the more horrific weapons, but we also have to think about how much our freedom is worth. It's a very slippery slope.
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