Phila​delph​ia '​ANIMA​L DISEA​SES'​ Terro​r Drill​ & US Block​s Avian​ Flu Vacci​nes In Fear Of '​BioTe​rror'​

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

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Terrorism drill takes aim at foreign animal diseases
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By JEFF CRAVEN
Philadelphia Daily News
Oct 16, 2008

[e-mail] 215-854-5218

http://www. philly. com/dailynews/local/20081016_Terrorism_drill_ta...

Terrorism came to Philadelphia and Chester County yesterday
Or at least authorities acted like it had

In an exercise that was more than a year in planning, the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies said, they conducted an "agroterrorism" test to see how the region might react to introduction of a "foreign animal disease" in livestock

The test was deemed a success

"The whole objective is to learn how to minimize the impact of a potential or actual outbreak," said Jerri Williams, an FBI spokeswoman.
"So, it was pretty successful"

The daylong test was conducted by the FBI's Philadelphia division, in conjunction with the U.S.
Attorney's Office and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Task Force

It took place at three locations: the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine at the New Bolton Center, Kennett Square, Chester County; the USS Shreveport, at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center; and the Chester County Department of Energy Services, West Chester

Among other things, FBI agents role-played with farmers about the source of an imaginary outbreak, Williams said

Agroterrorism refers to attacks that can expose livestock to afflictions found overseas, including foot-and-mouth (also called hoof-and-mouth) and mad-cow diseases, potentially crippling the U.S.
agriculture industry

"This type of disease can spread and recontaminate over and over again," Williams said.
"Just the possible consequences of that are devastating

Williams said that in the fake scenario, "we had been hearing that hoof-and-mouth disease had been found in three other states.
And so, Pennsylvania had been put on notice to look out for any possible outbreaks here"

Gary Smith, a professor of population biology and epidemiology at Penn's veterinary school, said that livestock can be infected by being exposed to animals already carrying a disease, or through trash brought from abroad

Because American farmers don't commonly vaccinate animals for such exposures, the results could be disastrous, he said

The exercise was intended to prepare the agencies to work together and to test communication equipment

"The good thing about an exercise like this is if there are things that could have been done better, you have an opportunity to sit and learn from that," Williams said.



US Block​s Avian​ Flu Vacci​nes In Fear Of '​BioTe​rror'​



Understanding Biodefense & Bioweapons Research with Ed Hammond

If anybody is the BIGGEST bioterrorist look no further than our Homeland insecurity... they can bring a contageous virus research lab into inland North Carolina and risk killing Americans but block other countries from the vaccines? HYPROCRITES!

AVIAN FLU WEAPONIZED ALREADY IN USA - August 01, 2008

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US limits bird flu vaccine, fearing bioterror
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Robin McDowell, Associated Press
Sunday, October 12, 2008

http://www. sfgate. com/cgi-bin/article. cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/12/MNOQ...

When Indonesia's health minister stopped sending bird flu viruses to a research laboratory in the United States for fear Washington could use them to make biological weapons, Defense Secretary Robert Gates laughed and called it "the nuttiest thing" he'd ever heard

Yet deep inside an 86-page supplement to United States export regulations is a single sentence that bars U.S.
exports of vaccines for avian bird flu and dozens of other viruses to five countries designated "state sponsors of terrorism"

The reason: fear that they will be used for biological warfare

Under this little-known policy, North Korea (at least until Saturday, when it was removed from the list), Iran, Cuba, Syria and Sudan may not get the vaccines unless they apply for special export licenses, which would be given or refused according to the discretion of the United States. Three of those nations - Iran, Cuba and Sudan - also are subject to a ban on all human pandemic influenza vaccines as part of a general U.S.
embargo

The regulations, which cover vaccines for everything from Dengue fever to the Ebola virus, have raised concern within the medical and scientific communities. Although they were quietly put in place more than a decade ago, they could now be more relevant because of recent concerns about bird flu. Officials from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they were not even aware of the policies until contacted by the Associated Press last month and privately expressed alarm

They make "no scientific sense," said Peter Palese, chairman of the microbiology department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
He said the bird flu vaccine, for example, can be used to contain outbreaks in poultry before they mutate to a form spread more easily between people

"The more vaccines out there, the better," he said.
"It's a matter of protecting ourselves, really, so the bird flu virus doesn't take hold in these countries and spread"

U.S.
Commerce Assistant Secretary Christopher Wall declined to elaborate on the precise threat posed by vaccines for chickens infected with avian influenza, except to say there are "valid security concerns" that they "do not fall into the wrong hands"

"Legitimate public health and scientific research is not adversely affected by these controls," he said

But some experts say the idea of using vaccines for bioweapons is far-fetched, and that in a health emergency, it is unclear how quickly authorities could cut through the current red tape to get the vaccines distributed

Under normal circumstances it would take at least six weeks to approve export licenses for any vaccine on the list, said Thomas Monath, who formerly headed a CIA advisory group on ways to counter biological attacks.
All such decisions would follow negotiations at a "very high level" of government

Kumanan Wilson, whose research at the University of Toronto focuses on policymaking in areas of health protection, said it would be ironic if the bird flu virus morphed into a more dangerous form in one of the listed countries

"That would pose a much graver threat to the public than the theoretical risk that the vaccine could be used for biological warfare," he said

The danger of biological warfare use depends on the specific virus or bacteria.
But most experts agree that bird flu vaccines cannot be genetically altered to create weapons because they contain an inactivated virus that cannot be resuscitated

It's also unlikely they would be used to create a resistant strain of the virus as part of efforts to wreak havoc within global poultry stocks.
If enemy states wanted to do that, they could make their own vaccines or turn to a less hostile country like China, said Ian Ramshaw, an expert on vaccine immunology and biosecurity at the Australian National University in Canberra

"I can think of no scientific reason how a terrorist organization could use such a vaccine for malicious intent," he said. "I personally think it's a rather silly attitude and the U.S.
is probably going overboard as it has in the past with many of its bioterrorism initiatives".