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Pentagon shifts $1 billion from WMD-defense efforts to vaccine development
The Obama administration has shifted more than $1 billion out of its nuclear, biological, and chemical defense programs to underwrite a new White House priority on vaccine development and production to combat disease pandemics; Defense Department projects under the budget-cutting ax include the development and acquisition of biological and chemical detection systems; gear to decontaminate skin and equipment after exposure; systems to coordinate military operations in a chem-bio environment; and protective clothing for military personnel entering toxic areas, the document indicates
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BioterrorismNew method to protect foods from anthrax contamination
An antibacterial enzyme found in human tears and other body fluids could be applied to certain foods for protection against intentional contamination with anthrax
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BioterrorismThwarting bioterrorism: Castor bean's genome sequenced
The sequencing of the castor bean genome shows that it has an estimated 31,237 genes. The research team focused on the genes in the castor bean that can be used to create biofuel and ricin
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Public healthIn-Q-Tel-like venture fund would help fight bioterrorism, pandemics
A report from Health and Human Services (HHS) officials urged development of a $200 million fund that would invest in new ways to thwart potential public health threats from viruses or biological agents; a separate panel of scientists and technology industry executives, created by President Barack Obama, said the United States needs to spend $1 billion annually to expand and modernize vaccine production; The panel also urged the United States to conduct research into the use of chemical additives that could increase the available number of doses in future pandemics
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Public healthU.S. to bolster defense against infectious threats
The Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Review, released yesterday at a press conference by HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius, concludes that despite the massive investments in biodefense after 9/11 and the 2001 anthrax attacks, the United States is still way too slow when it comes to responding to emerging health threats
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BioterrorismGenomic test developed to prevent bioterrorism
Researchers are working on develop a genomic test that can quickly determine whether a disease outbreak is caused by a natural pathogen or one that was grown in a lab by terrorists; the test is designed to provide homeland security and public health officials with the tools they need quickly to determine how to respond to an outbreak
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BioterrorismGarage-lab bugs: spread of bioscience increases bioterrorism risks
There is a new fear about the possible source of a bioterror attack: scientific advances now enable amateur scientists to carry out once-exotic experiments, such as DNA cloning, which could be put to criminal use; as recently as a decade ago, the tools and techniques for such fiddling were confined to a handful of laboratories like those at leading research universities; today, do-it-yourself biology clubs have sprung up where part-timers share tips on how to build high-speed centrifuges, isolate genetic material, and the like
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Plum Island bio lab an inviting target for terrorists
The bio lab on 840-acre Plum Island, a mile-and-a-half off Long Island's Orient Point, is a Biosafety level 4 facility -- the only type of research lab authorized to handle diseases that are communicable between humans and animals and for which there is no known cure; from a boat, terrorists armed with shoulder-fired rockets would have a clear shot, or a plane could dive into the laboratory, dispersing deadly germs into an area from Massachusetts to New York; DHS has decided to build a new lab in Kansas to replace the aging Plum Island center, but some local politicians object, citing the local jobs that would be lost
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HHS seeks comments on bioterror select agents list
The biennial review required by the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 is under way; comments about biological agents or toxins that should be added or removed are due by 20 August
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BioterrorismBioterrorism experts criticize cuts in BioShield to pay for teacher retention
In order to find funds which would prevent teacher layoffs, House Democrats craft an appropriations bill which takes $2 billion from a bioterrorism emergency program; security experts criticize what they call a lack of foresight
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BioterrorismFinding a smallpox vaccine for the event of a bioterror attack
Smallpox is a potentially fatal and highly contagious infectious disease, estimated to have killed between 300 million and 500 million people in the first half of the twentieth century; the world was declared free of smallpox in 1980 -- concern about the use of smallpox by bioterrorists spurs new research into vaccines
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Vast cleanup of Plum Island land since 2000
DHS plans to sell Plum Island and replace its bio-research facilities with a brand new BioLab in Manhattan, Kansas; documents show that since 2000 there have been extensive efforts to remove vast amounts of waste and contaminants -- hundreds of tons of medical waste, contaminated soil, and other refuse -- from the island
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BioterrorismResearchers sequence the human body louse
As well as irritations from infestations with body lice or the closely related human head lice, the body louse may carry harmful bacteria that cause epidemic typhus and are classified as a bioterrorism agent; U.S. and Swiss scientists have sequenced the louse genome -- a major step toward controlling the disease-vector insect
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BioterrorismEmergent sells anthrax vaccine to U.S. allies
European countries, worried about bioterror attacks, are working on a plan to stock vaccines regionally -- a Baltic stockpile, a Nordic stockpile, and so on would help in covering countries that have not expressed a desire to form their own stockpiles; a Maryland-based companies is providing these European countries with anthrax vaccine
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BioterrorismNorth Carolina prepares for bioterrorism, epidemics
North Carolina universities and state and federal agencies create the new North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative; the idea is to use computers to link all the disparate forms of data collected by various agencies quickly to root out indicators of new disease, or food-borne illness, or, in a worst-case scenario, an attack of bio-terrorism
The Long View
Scientists closer to a safer anthrax vaccine
The currently available, 40-year-old anthrax vaccine, can prevent disease, but it has significant drawbacks: Immunity is temporary, and five injections over the course of eighteen months are needed to sustain it; one in five vaccine recipients develop redness, swelling, or pain at the injection site, and a small number develop severe allergic reactions; researchers offer a better vaccine
The food we eatSchneier: no need to worry about terrorists poisoning food
Security maven Bruce Schneier says that fears of food-based bioterrorism are exaggerated: The quantities involved for mass poisonings are too great, the nature of the food supply too vast, and the details of any plot too complicated and unpredictable to be a real threat
Globalization and its discontentsRegulators cannot cope with food counterfeiting, contamination
New worry: Between the extremes of accidentally contaminated food and terrorism via intentional contamination, lies the counterfeiter, seeking not to harm but to hide the act for profit
Graham, Talent: U.S. should do more to prevent terrorist attack
The leaders of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism say that the incoming administration must do more, much more, to prevent a terrorist attack on the United States
Independent commission: WMD attack by terrorists likely
An independent commission of experts, set up by Congress as part of the recommendations by the 9/11 commission, concludes that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear, or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years
Anti-bioterror programs may make U.S. more vulnerable
There are 14 BSL-4 labs in the United States (6 already in operation; 3 completed but not yet operational; 5 under construction), and 15,000 scientists authorized to work with deadly pathogens; critics argue that by vastly increasing the number of researchers and labs authorized to handle deadly substances, the government has made the U.S. more vulnerable to bioterror attacks
