Bioweapons
Terror groups or a hostile country conducting a biological attack on the United States is a slim potential that must be considered, necessitating medical emergency response planning. Various multi-agency models have highlighted shortcomings in processes designed to combat biological threats. These drills have allowed us to focus preparedness efforts on the need for contingency plans. These plans will deal with the likelihood of a significant biowarfare attack on overwhelming healthcare services, causing mass disease and fatalities and wreaking havoc on the economy. Various factors will influence the effective deployment of vaccinations, antibodies, and other therapies in a biowarfare attack (Samore, 2021). Therefore, given the enormous challenges involved in cultivating, weaponizing, and disseminating contagious viruses, I believe the possibility of an attack, particularly a large-scale one, is unlikely.
Preparedness to Respond to a Biological Attack
From my perspective, we lack the capabilities to combat chemical and biological weapons. The current global outbreak of COVID-19 has revealed our healthcare system’s inability to battle the virus due to a lack of capacity, competence, and preparedness. Furthermore, before the September 11 crimes, multiple US agencies and research institutions performed a simulated biological strike called Dark Winter in 2001, employing the smallpox virus as the vector (Samore, 2021). The simulation, which was based on current stocks of the smallpox vaccine at the time, estimated approximately 12 million available dosages of smallpox immunization and exposed severe vulnerabilities in the public healthcare system. These shortcomings may make it difficult to respond effectively to spontaneous germ warfare or catastrophic viral epidemics.
One of the major issues uncovered throughout the experiment was a paucity of vaccination. This scarcity has been resolved, particularly in the case of smallpox, with the entry of millions of doses of smallpox vaccine into the US vaccine supply. The current COVID-19 epidemic, on the other hand, demonstrates this problem. Besides, the response of victims subjected to anthrax after the 9/11 attacks highlights this subject’s problems. In this instance, many affected people’s hesitation to obtain the anthrax vaccination reflected their fear of the drug’s adverse side effects and their suspicion of clinical specialists (We Are The Mighty, 2020). This mistrust could be a significant impediment to effective bioweapons suppression in any large-scale biowarfare event.
Improvements to Bioweapons Attack Preparedness
I would consolidate and increase collaboration across the various federal, state, and local institutions dealing with national health and safety crisis readiness, prevention, and management in the United States to boost our readiness standard. I would enhance the CDC and PHPR resources to build and reinforce public readiness for infectious disease epidemics and emergencies caused by natural, inadvertent, or deliberate disasters (Samore, 2021). Some of the resources will go to the Strategic National Stockpile, which is in charge of inventories of vaccinations, medications, and emergency relief that may be distributed in the event of a disaster.
Furthermore, I would establish and deploy study and examination agencies to investigate the scientific basis of biological concern dangers. These agencies will conduct studies and research on current and prospective biological threats. They will also examine model simulations and risk assessments and determine likely outcomes. Hence, defenses such as sensors, medicines, vaccinations, and decontamination treatments will be developed. Other groups in charge of dealing with and researching bioweapon attacks will assist researchers in identifying assailants and understanding the source and mechanism of the hit. Local and state medical institutions, governmental and non-governmental facilities, and state and local police groups will all be included in the case of a biological warfare health emergency.
Conclusively, I suggest a budget of $2.69 trillion for civilian biodefense. Most of the “biodefense” operations supported by this financing are intended to improve biodefense, overall readiness, mitigation, and responsiveness. In addition, the financial approach for countering bioterrorism may be used to develop and implement Health Alert Networks (HAN), which would provide an easier way of detecting any possible bioterrorism danger signals such as unusual disease symptoms.
References
Samore, G. (2021). Nobody is checking for violations of the Biological Weapons Convention. Global Biodefense.
We Are The Mighty. (2020). The British considered wiping out Germany with anthrax. We Are The Mighty.