In addition to measuring problems of nuclear security and nuclear proliferation, the Doomsday Clock rating also raises awareness of bio-security (see yesterday’s column for the first half of the discussion). Bio-security concerns span the life sciences but focus on issues of non-states gaining biological weapons and a state’s ability to respond to a biological crisis.
The first problem for leaders around the world to address is a proper measurement of the actual risk of a biological threat. At the moment many countries view the global lack of biological attacks to indicate there is no threat of such an attack. This would be a mistake, though, and should be rectified. International cooperation on this issue is crucial; however, with economies around the globe pushing more countries into austerity measures and taking the focus off of long-term research we will certainly face a problem in this area. Bio-defense must be a cooperative and funded part of the international conversation before there is an incident, not after.
The issue that primarily concerns Americans, though, is the report card in the most recent volume of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Gerald Epstein, Director for the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy at the America Association for the Advancement of Science, explained the 2011 “Bio-Response Report” for the United States. While the study shows the US with a grade of B (“meets many expectations”) on crucial areas for small-scale attacks, these “B” grades are in the fields of communication, the availability of medical countermeasures, and general administrative issues like communication and dispensation of countermeasures.
On the scale of “detections and diagnosis” the US scored a C (“meets minimal expectations”) on small-scale non-contagious and contagious threats; a D (“meets few expectations”) on large-scale non-contagious and contagious threats, and an F (“fails to meet expectations”) on large-scale drug resistant bio-weapons and global crisis/contagious weapons. The following link contains the detailed report: http://bos.sagepub.com/content/68/1/29.full.pdf+html
These results are startling in the wealthiest nation on Earth. Imagine the nightmare of the US response to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in the context of a contagious pathogen released in one of our major cities. It would be a nightmare in human concerns and in security posture.
United States politicians have picked perhaps the most dangerous time in human history to declare war on science. It is time we come together nationally to address the serious lapses in our reaction to bio-threats and come together internationally to develop protocols for better recognizing and containing bio-threats as soon as possible.
To continue following this week’s discussion of the Doomsday Clock results subscribe to the author above.
Comments