The United States must prepare for surprise attacks at home and abroad from…the new, emerging and largely unknown consequences posed by synthetic biological threats, a senior defense official told House congressional members on [March 23].
Dr. Arthur T. Hopkins, acting assistant secretary for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), testified that…”emerging infectious diseases, synthetic biology and engineered diseases…[is] an area where we are focusing and we have to continue to focus.”
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“It’s thinking about the biological threat that keeps me awake at night. It’s cheap, available and easy to transmit pathogens,” said U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA).
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To counter such current and emerging threats, DOD’s Chemical and Biological Defense Program is developing new strategies to more rapidly respond, especially in the area of medical countermeasures, Hopkins said.
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“The primary thing is early detection of a problem and then getting ahead of the curve on dealing with the problem. Early detection and warning are where [federal budget] investments should be made,” noted Peter Verga, the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Dept. of Defense aims countermeasures at WMD, synthetic biological threats
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