Biological warfare: Preparing for the unthinkable
Davidson, Margaret
Margaret Davidson BIOLOGICAL WARFARE Are we ready? In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, a shaken nation struggles to get back on its feet, but with the grim realization that its enemy...
...Today, little has changed...
...The Department of Defense (DOD) arranged with a single lab, the Michigan Department of Public Health, to provide the needed vaccines...
...Iraq later admitted to UNSCOM that it had produced 8,500 liters of concentrated anthrax bacillus and 19,400 liters of concentrated botulinum toxin, which could have afflicted thousands...
...It seems DOD failed not only to protect its troops against biological weapons but—either out of an attempt to cover up its shortcomings or out of just plain negligence— to keep the required records...
...The full extent of this failure is difficult to determine because many service members' medical records were found, on investigation, to be missing or incomplete...
...Experts now estimate there may be as many as fifty or more agents that are potential biological weapons, yet DOD only requires that military personnel be vaccinated against anthrax...
...On September 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning that modern technology has made it possible for terrorists to kill millions of people with biological or chemical weapons...
...When it realized that a single producer could not meet such a demand, DOD scrambled to generate an adequate supply...
...Even with those lowered doses, vaccine supplies proved insufficient and anxiety quickly developed among those not on the priority list...
...lab makes the vaccine—the same Michigan lab that produced the vaccine for the Gulf War, now owned by a company called BioPort Corporation—which has not yet been able to comply with FDA guidelines...
...The time has come, then, for acknowledging our failures and considering a fast-track Manhattan-style project to develop and produce vaccines...
...As a result, only about one hundred and fifty thousand out of nearly seven hundred thousand troops who headed to the Persian Gulf received one or more doses of the anthrax vaccine, and an estimated eight thousand received one shot of the botulism vaccine...
...The United States must now take seriously the threat of a potential enemy who might employ lethal viruses and bacteria...
...But research related to biological weapons is often controversial because of the fine line between offensive and defensive work, as illustrated by the recent controversy over a government proposal to genetically engineer an especially potent anthrax-causing bacterium in order to assess whether the current vaccine would be effective...
...Military leaders later acknowledged the seriousness of the problem in a secret after-action report...
...Furthermore, vaccines against a large number of other potential biological agents have never been developed or remain strictly in the research stage...
...Recent news reports that the terrorists who attacked New York and Washington had made inquiries about crop-dusting planes underline the danger...
...Fear increasingly focuses on the possibility that such an enemy might one day turn to biological weapons...
...Even if we are fortunate enough never to face a future where biological agents are used against us, research efforts could dramatically contribute to the treatment and prevention of disease at a time when emerging diseases are a growing threat...
...The same month, the decision was made to vaccinate our troops against anthrax and botulism...
...That was a decade ago...
...In August 1990, an intelligence warning went out: "Iraq, the first nation to use nerve agents on the battlefield, probably would not hesitate to use BW [biological warfare] agents in extreme situations...
...It is a threat that the United States has been slow to engage, perhaps because the use of such weapons has been too terrifying to contemplate...
...It is questionable how much protection even these shots provided...
...Even though the threat and countermeasures were well known long before Desert Storm/Desert Shield, a 1991 Central Command report declassified in 1996 says that "the United States Army Medical Department was ill-prepared for medical defense against biological warfare agents...
...As a result, release of new anthrax vaccine has come to a halt...
...The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is supporting some innovative responses to the problem...
...troops would go woefully unprotected against biological weapons...
...A large portion of the military personnel didn't get them until early 1991 when they were already in the Gulf, too late for the full recommended regimen...
...Margaret Davidson, a medical journalist, is chair of the journalism department at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh...
...Still, our leaders have failed adequately to provide the medical vaccines and treatments needed to proCommonweal 9 October 12,2001 tect both civilians and the military against potential deadly bacteria, viruses, and toxins...
...Even though the threat is small, WHO said, the potential effects are devastating...
...But the response was too little and too late...
...Furthermore, the attacks of September 11 are a chilling reminder that changing times demand changing responses...
...Only one U.S...
...A decade ago, personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf faced potential stockpiles of Saddam Hussein's biological weapons but were largely unshielded against them...
...Food and Drug Administration [FDA] guidelines call for six anthrax shots over an eighteen-month period...
...Anthrax shots were to be reduced to two injections about two weeks apart, in the hope that this would provide at least partial immunity...
...Commonweal 10 October 12, 2001...
...The threat is not new...
...its botulism vaccine schedule is three shots in twelve weeks...
...Central Command then allocated doses to those personnel thought to be at greatest risk of exposure...
...Lacking enough anthrax vaccine to go around, the U.S...
...Sent forth to ferret out the shadowy terrorists, U.S...
...In the last year, various levels of government have staged mock crises and devoted considerable time and money to preparing emergency personnel for such attacks...
...Project Badger, a tri-service task force, was initiated to find additional suppliers, but it turned out that commercial manufacturers were not interested...
...In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, a shaken nation struggles to get back on its feet, but with the grim realization that its enemy ignores the recognized rules for waging war...
Vol. 128 • October 2001 • No. 17
