Thursday, October 13, 2011

U.S. unprepared for large-scale bio-attack, report warns

*cross-posted from Assoluta Tranquillita*

From Homeland Security News Wire

13 October 2011

On Wednesday, the WMD Center released its latest report that found the United States is unprepared for a large-scale biological attack, despite spending more than $65 billion on biodefense over the past decade; the report warned that the threat of biological weapons is now greater than ever as a result of technological advances; a small team of individuals with training in key disciplines can produce "the type of bioweapons created by nation-states in the 1960s"


U.S. preparedness levels questioned // Source: un.org

The report warned that the threat of biological weapons is now greater than ever as a result of technological advances.

Security experts have been well aware of the catastrophic potential of a biological attack, yet despite this knowledge, the government has largely failed to prepare the nation for a large-scale attack.

“If you look at capabilities of terrorist groups, if you look at their intentions and you look at our vulnerabilities … the threat is very high,” said former Missouri Senator Jim Talent, the report’s co-authors....



Go here to read the rest of this.

This chart is part of the report, the preamble of which says this:

Bio-Response Report Card

Bio-Response Report Card PDF

The idea for this report card project began late last year, when we asked ourselves the question, “If the nation is unprepared for a biological attack, what more can we do?” Since 2001, the United States government has spent more than $65 billion on biodefense, and yet it has done so without an end-to-end, strategic assessment of the nation’s bioresponse capabilities. This report seeks to fill that gap.

View the complete Bio-Response Report Card PDF





























What you DON'T know just might kill you. Follow all the links, both here and in the report.


Be informed.