Call for New 'Manhattan Project' to Fight Bioterror

"DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The world needs an effort similar to that behind the creation of the atomic bomb to tackle the multi-faceted threat of biowarfare, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday.

"We need to do something that even dwarfs the Manhattan project," Frist told the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos. The Manhattan project was the codename for the United States's World War II effort to devise an atomic weapon.

"The greatest existential threat we have in the world today is biological. Why? Because unlike any other threat it has the power of panic and paralysis to be global."

He predicted that the world would experience another bioweapon attack within the next decade, following the limited casualties seen when anthrax was sent through the U.S. mail system in 2001.

Next time, the death rate could be a much, much higher, said Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites) Professor John Deutch.

An attack using the smallpox virus is overwhelmingly the largest risk, he believes."

story.news.yahoo.com.../nm/20050127/pl_nm/davos_security_bioweapons_dc

I am a little "shocked" by this article, such a program started about 1 year before 911. BSL-4 labs (bio safety level 4) are being built all over the US just as fast as they can be built. 911 did cause some changes to the designs based on new security "risk" assessments.

The new problem is the staff to do the research is getting a bit narrow.

Mmmmm... lets see now, who is dicking around with some of the nastiest bugs out there, mutating them and saying how clever they are?
Not a bunch of Arabs sitting in caves and tents, that's for sure.

Israeli and US scientists have even gone so far as to talk about gene specific weapons to target populations of a paticular ethnicity.

Madness, complete and utter madness

INADEQUATE CONTROLS FOR RACE-SPECIFIC BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS, WARNS JANE’S


Recent outcry in the UK over genetically modified foods would not have occurred if there were adequate controls and regulations in the field of genetic science. These controls must improve quickly if we are to prevent a proliferation of race-specific biological weapon (“ethnic” weapon) availability, warns John Eldridge in the new edition of Jane’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence.

Eldridge notes that a number of projects are now publicly providing too much information that is useful in the construction of ethnic weapons: “full exposure of data on both the common DNA in the human species and also its degree of variety should be subject to control”. There is an urgent need to establish a common ethical consensus regarding the uses of genetic research, so that stronger legislation can be put in place.

Additionally, world-wide advances in laboratory technology mean that it will not be long before any country could theoretically develop an ethnic weapon arsenal. "

Actually biowar research goes back to 1918 and the "spanish flu". Many muslim nations have been researching "genetic" specific "bugs" to kill only Israelis for some time.

Hitler was try to find the same thing back in the death camps. So don't go pointing fingers at the US and UK.

Top Bush Administration officials recently unfurled an unclassified version of a presidential directive outlining the government’s strategy for preparing the U.S. for potential bioterrorism. The directive, “Biodefense for the 21st Century,” comes on the heels of mounting fears over a building boom in high-containment biodefense labs.

The directive lays out the responsibilities of U.S. agencies in preventing, detecting, and responding to bioterrorist attacks. It mandates no new major programs and authorizes no new funding beyond the nearly $6 billion the Administration now spends annually on biodefense. Instead, it is meant to spark the development of new diagnostic technologies and therapeutics, boost intelligence sharing among agencies, and hasten reporting of possible bioterrorism incidents.


pubs.acs.org...

Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemistry at Rutgers University, faults the directive on several fronts. He says too much money is being spent with too little planning. “Duplication of effort is rampant.”

Under the directive, the Department of Health & Human Services is charged with anticipating future threats from innovative biotechnology and emerging infectious diseases. As part of that mission, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is funding the construction of 11 high-containment “hot” labs at universities to research countermeasures against possible bioterror agents.

Last September, NIAID granted the Boston University Medical Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, each $120 million to build National Biocontainment Labs (NBL). These highest containment Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) labs will be equipped to handle agents that produce life-threatening diseases for which no treatments are available.


[edit on 28-1-2005 by DrHoracid]

hello DrHoracid

what's going on? I actually agree with you

From my own personal point of view, I would never get immunised against any potential virus as I am on dialysis so right down the bottom of priorities when it comes to immunisation!! I'd have evenless chance when I am post transplant any immunisation is far too dangerous when you are immunosuppressed . So although I dont worry on a dauily basis about the possibility of such an attack it does concern me that I can never be protected against it.

arnold_vosloo,

I am sorry for your position. I would suggest investing in duct tape and heavy guage plastic. It could be the best defence you have. Im not telling everyone to be paranoid, just cautious. I have bought those supplies and a few various other items and tucked them away 'just in case'. The chances of ever having to use them is pretty slim, but there is still a chance. It is better to be prepared for nothing than to be caught with your pants down for something.

Originally posted by arnold_vosloo
hello DrHoracid

what's going on? I actually agree with you

From my own personal point of view, I would never get immunised against any potential virus as I am on dialysis so right down the bottom of priorities when it comes to immunisation!! I'd have evenless chance when I am post transplant any immunisation is far too dangerous when you are immunosuppressed . So although I dont worry on a dauily basis about the possibility of such an attack it does concern me that I can never be protected against it.

In addition to Kids suggestion also get some high level anti-biotic "Cepro" etc. Also get a HEPA vacuum cleaner. You can plug it into you plastic "tent" and pressurize it by letting the exhaust fill your tent. The "hepa" filter will stop "all" currently known pathogens.

Now back on subject please..............

Originally posted by DrHoracid

Actually biowar research goes back to 1918 and the "spanish flu".

It goes back farther than that doc. At one point during the conquest of America and the Native American Indian, small pox was spread throughout an Iindian reservation by using blankets. The US put small pox on blankets and handed them out to the indians.

Originally posted by Kidfinger

Originally posted by DrHoracid

Actually biowar research goes back to 1918 and the "spanish flu".

It goes back farther than that doc. At one point during the conquest of America and the Native American Indian, small pox was spread throughout an Iindian reservation by using blankets. The US put small pox on blankets and handed them out to the indians.

BUSTED..........modern bio-war isn't modern at all is it. But these were "natural" agents. Its thoses "superbugs" I worry about. The ones not yet "manufactured"................Like "superpox"

Originally posted by DrHoracid
"The greatest existential

Whats Kafka got to do with it? Great, now people are going to say its a zionist conspiracy. Better not even mention Camus or Satre. And if people find out about Kierkegaard then it'll become a KKK-Masonic-Illuminati Conspriacy. Should be safe from the reptoids tho, since copenhagen is pretty cold for 'em....

An attack using the smallpox virus is overwhelmingly the largest risk, he believes."

How about increasing basic research funding and opening up the stem cell lines to federally funded research?

Didn't SUNY Stonybrook in NY build a small pox virus from scratch?

I am a little "shocked" by this article, such a program started about 1 year before 911. BSL-4 labs (bio safety level 4) are being built all over the US just as fast as they can be built.

Including the one you are located in right...?

britguy
Not a bunch of Arabs sitting in caves and tents, that's for sure.

Do not ignore the threat or assume 'arabs' are to stupid and inferior to do this. As I noted above, SUNY Stonybrook, a public state school in the US, was able to build, from inanimate precursors, a functional smallpox virus. The research was published in publically available science journals. A small lab can certainly generate these sorts of things, in a tent, in a cave.

Also, remember, bin ladins money comes from engineering and building projects. Those tora bora 'caves' were filled with equipment and machinery to pump in and circulate fresh air. THese guys weren't all sleeping on rocks with bats and worms.

kidfingerI would suggest investing in duct tape and heavy guage plastic

These things will not protect you from VX gases being sprayed from trucks running down your street or from contact with the inumerable people and animals that can be infected by a bioattack. You'd need a hermetically sealed hazmat suit that maintains higher internal pressure than the outside air along with a chemical wash shower in your basement and an air circulation and decontamination system (along with one for water for any lengthy stay in your suit, not to mention a waste disposal suction hose, also hermetically sealed) in order to be moderately safe in your house. Of course, then you can't leave it, nor let anyone else in, and it will be difficult to shoot down marauding gangs of infected citizens from comming in.

That, or the US and Britian could just engage in a global ant-terror war and destroy all states and organizations that allow terror cells to operate and be funded.

t goes back farther than that doc.

Of course, the most primitive attempts at 'biowarfare' are from the beginging of war, when infectious rotting carcasses were tossed over city walls, or wells were similarly poisoned.

Originally posted by DrHoracid
. Its thoses "superbugs" I worry about. The ones not yet "manufactured"................Like "superpox"

There does need to be strict regulation with the genetically engineered virus's and agents being produced. I read a book a few years ago about a super virus called "Shiva". I cant remember the name of the book, but the virus that was unleashed was a real nasty bug.

[edit on 1/28/05 by Kidfinger]