Recent News

By Region: North America

Syria’s WMD Threat

(The National Interest Online) Reports differ as to Syria’s biological-warfare capability. German and Israeli sources believe it possesses bacillus anthracis (which causes anthrax), botulinum toxin and ricin. American sources believe the capability is “probable.” In 1972, Syria signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, but it has never ratified it. The international community seems prepared Read More »

April 6, 2012
| Filed under Middle East, North America, Biological Weapons, and International
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Little consensus at scientific meeting on releasing results of risky research

(Washington Post) A two-day meeting here brought scientists no closer to resolving the question of whether there are any kinds of experiments whose results should be kept from the public. Arriving at an international consensus about whether scientific journals should occasionally publish censored versions of papers because the full ones might prove useful to terrorists Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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FDA to research prescription anthrax treatments

(UPI.com) Though emergency treatments have undergone pilot studies in recent years, the government is looking into creating a user-friendly consumer MedKit that the average American could buy, store at home and use properly in case of a bioterrorism attack. “Something could occur and people would not have access to their doctor or a pharmacist, so Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Dangerous flu mutations revealed

(Nature News Blog) Two scientists recently hit the headlines when they created mutant strains of H5N1 influenza, which can spread between mammals. But although Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, spoke publicly to explain and defend the work, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, and Public Health
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We’re Letting Our Bioterrorism Defenses Down

(Forbes) Both Michael Chertoff, former secretary of Homeland Security, and Admiral Mike McConnell, former director of national intelligence, have said that bioterror – not a nuclear weapon – was their greatest fear when they were in office. “In terms of catastrophic attacks, bio was at the top of the list,” said Chertoff, who served from Read More »