Bioterrorism

A detailed Summary of Bioterrorism

"Disease has long been the deadliest enemy of mankind," says George Bush, "...we have fought the causes and consequences of disease throughout history and must continue to do so with every available means (qtd. in "Defending against bioterrorism" n. pg.)." In light of the recent anthrax attacks, bioterrorism is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. While vaccine stockpiles, radiation treatment, and research seem to be the more appealing solutions to this atrocity, the public education and awareness to report possible biological outbreaks is a basic and less expensive area in which could be one of the most effective and long term solutions which is very much overlooked. While each solution has its advantages, the cooperation of the Bush Administration, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with other organizations, would ensure that each solution would not be overlooked and that each would be carried out effectively.

One of the most known solutions, vaccine stockpiling, is actually not as good as it seems because it is expensive and the only time it would actually see use is if an attack occurred. If a widespread outbreak were to occur, the neccesary

Lastly, The most effective solution is the cooperation of the Bush Administration and the CDC, with other organizations. The Bush Administration's Homeland Security budget is $37.7 billion. Of that, only 0.1% ($20 million) goes toward developing a system for data sharing among federal agencies and across local, state, and federal jurisdictions ("Shortchanging prevention" n.pag.). Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge sais that there are "no major initiatives" in the Bush budget to address the data sharing problem (qtd. "Shortchanging" n.pag.)." A frustrated Customs insider complains that he's, "Locked out of almost every state and every other federal agency's intelligence database when I run a security check. That makes no sense. Our biggest problem is the lack of shared information. That's the absolute first step (qtd. n.pag.)."

In conclusion, there is not one single solution to bioterrorism. While each solution has its advantages and disadvantages, the best action to take is to establish a cooperation between any and every organization involved in bioterrorism research, prevention, and control. The possibility of a bioterrorist attack is more than likely. Senator and doctor Bill Frist says, "It's not that we're unprepared, it's that we're underprepared. In our federal, state, local, and private health systems, we have all of the pieces we need for an effective defense against bioterrorism. We need to coordinate those pieces and commit the necessary resources. The gaps we now see in our public health system are the result of decades of neglect and underinvestment. We've already begun to correct the problems. But we still have a lot to do. And we must do it now ("Bioterrorism risk" 50)."

One of the most effective, b

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Approximate Word count = 1176
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science