Recent News

By Region: North America

Reforms Seen Failing to Rescue U.S. Biodefense Drug Efforts

(GSN Daily News) Organizational problems and funding shortfalls continue to hinder U.S. efforts to develop and produce vaccines and other treatments for use following a potential act of bioterrorism, despite three attempts to overhaul the system since the 1990s, the New York Times reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Sept. 27).

October 27, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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How Ready Are We for Bioterrorism?

(New York Times) A few days after 9/11, a retired Air Force colonel named Randall Larsen entered the northwest gate of the White House, crossed a courtyard to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, stepped through the front door and stopped dead in his tracks. In place of the usual security checkpoint, there was an elaborate Read More »

October 27, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, Bioterrorism, and Policy & Initiatives
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Army Lab Left Anthrax Widely Reachable Prior to Mailings

(Global Security Newswire) Protective measures in place at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in 2001 would not have prevented any staffer or short-term employee from leaving the facility with enough anthrax bacteria to cultivate the spores used to …

October 26, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Bioterrorism, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Possible study of anthrax vaccine’s effectiveness in children stirs debate

(Washington Post) The Obama administration is wrestling with the thorny question of whether scientists should inject healthy children with the anthrax vaccine to see whether the shots would safely protect them against a bioterrorism attack. The other option is to wait …

October 25, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Public Health
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Secret Reports: With Security Spotty, Many Had Access to Anthrax

(ProPublica) A sign on the door of a Biosafety Level-4 laboratory at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) by Greg Gordon, McClatchy, and Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica Oct. 24, 2011, …