why is antrax being singled out as the only form of biological warfare?

[aglio412]

i read this article today:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001350006-2001353919,00.html

and i may be ignorant to what's going on right now, but aren't there many many forms of biological warfare? i mean i've heard of serin nerve gas and smallpox being used...i don't understand where all the hype about anthrax came from?

c'mon the song 'i'm the man' was pretty good, but all in all, they're a crappy band.

ahhh, ok poor attempt at some cheesy 80s rock humor...anyway

seriously though...what do the rest of you know about biological warfare and the different agents used in it. i just can't get over the anthrax hype...if bio-war goes down...a mountain of anti-anthrax pills isn't gonna help when they're raining nerve gas on us...

[Memo]

Hehe, well if someone busted out nerve gas it would be something people immediately noticed. I am not SURE about smallpox but I think most people are vaccinated against it. It is probably because we have actually FOUND 3 cases of Anthrax in the US and it's a Disease that hasn't been around for a good 25 years or so.

[Burzhui]

Anthrax is very simple to produce, has no smell and has 90% fatality rate of all cases exposed to it

[attgig]

Originally posted by Burzhui
Anthrax is very simple to produce, has no smell and has 90% fatality rate of all cases exposed to it

hmmm, you know a little too much about anthrax....

[welfareloser]

anthrax is pretty cheap and esy to grow, and pretty forgiving about being transported. and it's now popped up in two different places in the US, so it seems to be the biowarfare flavor of the week...

[Burzhui]

Originally posted by attgig


hmmm, you know a little too much about anthrax....

I swear, welfareloser made me do it she is the mastermind look at how much she knows



*he he, rubs ahnds and snickers*:P

[Butch]

Yup . . . not to take a dig, but for once Burzhui is on target . . . except, it is not VERY simple to produce, just among the easiest to produce. It still takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to create and even more knowledge to handle. For inhalable anthrax, the spores have to be a under a certain size, otherwise they will rather harmlessly just fall to the ground and die - if they were even alive to begin with when they were released. It is extremely difficult to release them effectively in a way in which they will be alive and will disperse. This is where the advantage of chemical weapons, like Sarin, comes in - they do not have to be alive.

The thing with chemical weapons is though that it often takes a larger dose to cause a mortal reaction.

As for smallpox, the vaccinations you received as a kid are pretty much useless right now. They wear off after about 10 years. And, since Smallpox was "eradicated" over 10 years ago, many young people never even got vaccinations - pretty much everybody would be susceptible now. However, it is at least treatable and the US does still have a pretty good stockpile of vaccines.

[Burzhui]

Originally posted by Butch
This is where the advantage of chemical weapons, like Sarin, comes in - they do not have to be alive.


Tabun, GA: (CH3)2N-P(=O)(-CN)(-OC2H5)
Sarin, GB: CH3-P(=O)(-F)(-OCH(CH33)2)
Soman, GD: CH3-P(=O)(-F)(-CH(CH3)C(CH3)3
GF: CH3-P(=O)(-F)(cyklo-C6H11)

And my personal favorite

VX GAS
methylphosphonothioic acid
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/vx/vxh/images/vx_stick.gif
VX: CH3-P(=O)(-SCH2CH2N[CH(CH3)2]2)(-OC2H5)

[Markel]

Originally posted by Butch
As for smallpox, the vaccinations you received as a kid are pretty much useless right now. They wear off after about 10 years. And, since Smallpox was "eradicated" over 10 years ago, many young people never even got vaccinations - pretty much everybody would be susceptible now. However, it is at least treatable and the US does still have a pretty good stockpile of vaccines.
Most people today are no longer immune to smallpox, as you said. The even greater danger is that the known strains of smallpox developed by the Soviet Union for germ warfare are a much more potent variant strain. It is estimated that it will be two years before any meaningful quantity of vaccine could be available to guard against it.

[aglio412]

here's some general medical information from webmd concerning anthrax, smallpox and chemical agents:

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/4058.226

[welfareloser]

Originally posted by Butch
Yup . . . not to take a dig, but for once Burzhui is on target . . . except, it is not VERY simple to produce, just among the easiest to produce. It still takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to create and even more knowledge to handle.

good point. i should have said RELATIVELY simple. some bozo high school dropout is not going to manage it, but anyone familiar with basic lab techniques can pull it off with some fairly basic lab equipment and a protocol to follow.

[Burzhui]

Originally posted by welfareloser


good point. i should have said RELATIVELY simple. some bozo high school dropout is not going to manage it, but anyone familiar with basic lab techniques can pull it off with some fairly basic lab equipment and a protocol to follow.

Yea that would take care of producing it, but to contain it, and not get contminated... that's a different question

[aglio412]

kinda makes me wonder...

what does the US have hidden in its labs

you know we have stuff 100 times as powerful as any chemical/viral strain some renegade terrorist group could unleash on us

[Markel]

Originally posted by aglio412
you know we have stuff 100 times as powerful as any chemical/viral strain some renegade terrorist group could unleash on us
Probably so. But unleashing chemical/biological agents gets a very dim view from the world community. Kind of like crashing jets into buildings. :(

[aglio412]

Originally posted by Markel

Probably so. But unleashing chemical/biological agents gets a very dim view from the world community. Kind of like crashing jets into buildings. :(

don't get me wrong here...i think chemical/biological...even nuclear war is the lowest form of what is already a low, disgusting, horrible thing...war

i'm just thinking that there's alot of things going on in hidden US labs that we'll never know anything about...