Recent News

By Region: North America

HHS to Boost Smallpox Antiviral Stocks

A branch of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department is preparing to deliver a request for proposals for 1.7 million doses of a smallpox antiviral treatment, biodefense firm SIGA Technologies announced on Monday. The total order from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority could be expanded to as many as 12 million additional Read More »

February 23, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Public Health
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Parts of the Sum: Unpacking the Dynamics of Biological Weapons Proliferation

The proliferation potential of biological weapons is an exceedingly complex topic, only made more complicated by semantic inconsistencies. For example, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), considered to be the cornerstone of the global biological weapons nonproliferation regime, has been variously termed an arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation treaty.

February 22, 2011
| Filed under North America and Biological Weapons
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The New Virology by David E. Hoffman

Largely unseen by the world, two dangerous germs homed in on their targets in the spring and early summer of 2009. One was made by man to infect computers. The other was made by nature, and could infect man. The man-made virus could invade a computer running Windows, replicate itself, wreck an industrial process, hide Read More »

February 21, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, and Bioterrorism
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Napolitano Requests $57B For Homeland Security

The U.S. Homeland Security Department is seeking $57 billion in funding for the upcoming fiscal year for programs that include a monitoring system for potential bioterrorism threats and acquisition of additional radiation detectors to safeguard population centers against a potential nuclear attack (see GSN, Feb. 10). “Today’s threat picture features an adversary who evolves and Read More »

February 18, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, and Policy & Initiatives
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Lawmaker Seeks New Anthrax Mailings Probe

U.S. Representative Rush Holt on Tuesday introduced legislation that would create a panel to review the 2001 anthrax mailings as well as the federal handling of the incidents (see GSN, Feb. 15). A National Academy of Sciences panel on the same day released a report questioning the conclusiveness of genetic evidence the FBI used to Read More »