Worthless advice on bioterrorism to the new administration
One resource the incoming Obama administration is certainly to find no shortage of is advice. We don’t know whom they will listen to, although we know much of it — maybe most of it — is likely to be of...
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Nanothinking at NIH
My Scibling Mark H. over at the Denialism blog has reproduced an internal NIH memo that is something to behold: If you aren’t used to the conventions of scientific collegiality you might not realize at...
View ArticleFort Detrick stands up by standing down
Among the many things going on (or not going on) the last couple of weeks is a total “stand down” of the country’s main biodefense research laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Here’s the inter memo,...
View ArticleThe anthrax attacks: the FBI’s incurable disease
When the FBI said that they had conclusive scientific evidence that biodefense scientists Bruce Ivins of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was the 2001 anthrax...
View ArticleOrganized public health: bland and toothless
My public health colleague DemFromCT continues his public health interview series on the front page of DailyKos today, talking to Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health...
View ArticleEbola and the henhouse
When an Ebola virus related lab accident in German occurred, special pathogens researchers girded themselves for bad news. Working with agents for which there is currently no treatment of vaccine...
View ArticleIs biotech a security problem?
A Reuters piece under the headline, “Biotechnology Boom Raises Security Fears: Mild Diseases Could Be Turned Into Deadly Ones, Experts Caution” we see the biotech Frankenstein/terrorist bogeyman raised...
View ArticleKansas: what a great place to put a lab full of incredibly infectious cattle...
When the Bush Administration awarded a construction grant to put a Level 4 laboratory in Galveston, Texas to work on the most dangerous biological agents, a lot of people, including we here at Effect...
View ArticleFBI’s mercy killing of the anthrax case
This is our 10th post on the anthrax attacks. Will it be our last? Yes, if the FBI has anything to say about it. They are closing the case. A case they messed up pretty thoroughly from the outset but...
View ArticleRationality as innovation
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano is asking academics to work with her agency to develop “innovative initiatives” to protect the nation from terrorist threats. This...
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