Demon in the Freezer, Research Paper Example

Now that youhave completed the book (and the course) what do you think Preston “Demon in the Freezer”?Contributed to the discussion of biological weapon agent control? How did he increase your understanding of the issue and its complexities?

The book is wrote after the anthrax attacks in 2001 where they were sent in envelopes to various people across the United States and CDC Center for Disease Control had to come in and call it an epidemic. The Demon in the Freezer was a non-fiction book about infectious disease and the headquarters at the United States Army Research Center which was once the headquarters for the United States biological weapons program. I think it is a very fictionally informative book of what can happen when people are exposed to biological warfare contaminants and how the government will handle such exposure. Will they try to put an end to the epidemic or will they try to hide the epidemic? The scientist, Peter Jahrling, top scientist is attempting to isolate the smallpox virus and find a cure to clear the epidemic. The disease is housed at two freezers in Atlanta and Siberia. The demon has been set loose because it is believed that illegal stocks of the disease are in the hands of the Iraqui’s and North Korean’s.

Question 2: Consider the following excerpt from the 2009 “National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats”:

“We are fortunate that biological threats have not yet resulted in a catastrophic attack or accidental release in the United States. However, we recognize that: (1) the risk is evolving in unpredictable ways; (2) advances in the enabling technologies will continue to be globally available; and (3) the ability to exploit such advances will become increasingly accessible to those with ill intent as the barriers of technical expertise and monetary costs decline. Accordingly, we cannot be complacent but instead must take action to ensure that advances in the life sciences positively affect people of all nations while we reduce the risks posed by their misuse.”

Considering the number of countries or extremist organizations that have acquired or are actively seeking many of the infectious agents that we have discussed in this course what can the USA do now that it is not already doing to counter the biological threat?, Include in your considerations the new global security paradigm encompassing bioterrorism and biological warfare that can originate far from America’s shores but can manifest itself in our cities, airports, train stations, ports and, yes, in casinos, malls, sports arenas and other places. Don’t forget the dual use potential of all of the discoveries made and will be made in science and technology.

Extremists are constantly trying to find ways to make epidemics in their laboratories to send the United States and ruin our people and our country. The CDC has been keeping up with the latest strands of epidemics and finding anti-epidemic cures to dissolve the threat in case the extremists come up with another plot just as in 2001 with the anthrax threat. Now they are using old viruses and trying to “amp” them up with strands of disease that cannot be counteracted just as in the book we read. What the USA can do is stay up to date with the latest strands of diseases to counter any biological threats. Currently scientists at the CDC work round the clock thinking up new strands of diseases and what can be done to counterattack them all. Extremists normally try to infect our hotels, airports, malls sports arenas and any large public place they can inherit access to. We can take another approach and try to monitor potential anti-terrorists already in the country and do not open any packages from countries of whose address we do not know. Just as the opener of the anthrax virus opened a letter from an unknown source the same thing could happen again.

Just as with anthrax, laboratories are set up to rule out the bacteria from anthrax. They are practicing the same with other warfare diseases, to rule out those they know and practice with and working on the infinite details of the others. The CDC is the highest place of authority to vindicate a disease and do testing for potential killers. I think we have a lot of diseases under control but there are always new strands being made across seas just waiting to send them as an epidemic to the United States, because they are jealous of the freedom we have here. I am not surprised the other European countries have not been hit more often since they are also thriving ally countries of America.

America’s food is not free from terroristic threats and attacks. The Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Organizations are in control of testing all foods for poisons before shipping them out to stores. Sometimes, they cannot test for every possible strand which makes this very scary because we do not know exactly which terrorists in the world will attack our food but we know in fact our food has been poisoned before.

References

Preston, Richard Demon in the Freezer Detroit News and Free Press RandomHouse Publishing (2002) Print.

Van Reyes, Stephen Producers given graphic warning of threat of Porcine Epidemic DiarrheaMantioba Co-Operator News (2013). Print.

Anthrax. Butcher, N. The Center for Disease Control 13 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/>.