Is Bioterrorism the Greatest Threat to the United States Today?

The threat of a biological attack looms large in the United States today. Advances in biotechnology have made synthesizing diseases from scratch a possibility. While Islamic extremists continue to target the United States it is only a matter of time before they have a trained biologist with the skill to weaponize a disease and unleash a disaster the country is ill prepared to deal with. However, the greatest danger we face as a nation today comes not from the type of attack Islamists may choose to use but that they plan to attack at all.
According to author Stewart A. Baker, former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, gene sequencing is undergoing exponential progress and it is only a matter of years before a biologist with the right knowledge about DNA synthesis and good lab equipment will be able to recreate smallpox from scratch. In 2002 the polio virus was reassembled and in 2005, Baker claims, synthesizing smallpox became a matter of choice, not capability. (Baker, 2010) And not only smallpox but other diseases are being recreated through the gene sequencing process as well. Diseases such as the bubonic plague and smallpox that once haunted us can re-emerge to cause mass fatalities and panic once again.
As a nation, we are woefully unprepared for such a crisis. In 2006, statistics showed that 11 states and Washington, D.C. lacked the capabilities sufficient to test and detect a biothreat. A whopping 40 states had a shortage of Registered Nurses, the very health personnel we will rely on as first responders during a bioterrorism attack. 12 states, as well as D.C., were not fully compatible with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Electronic Disease Surveillance System – the system used by the CDC to track disease outbreaks. (Trust for America's Health, 2006). The very center of government, from which public health policy emanates, is unprepared for a bioterrorism attack. In the same report issued in 2010 things had not gotten much better. 33 states and D.C. had cut funding for Public Health during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 Fiscal Years. Since January of 2008, a total of 23,000 public health jobs had been cut. 21 states could not identify E. Coli 0157:H7 rapidly enough to be of benefit if it were used as a bioagent. In 90% of the cases these same states could not submit lab results within a 4 day period – crucial to detecting and containing a biological attack. (Trust for America's Health, 2010)
With a nation that is unprepared to deal with a large scale bioattack we sit as vulnerable as a duck stuck on a frozen pond. Whether groups like al Qaeda will choose to use bioagents to attack us is not known. Although they have stated their intent on using bioagents against us, we have not yet experienced an attack of that nature (the October 2001 Anthrax attacks were likely not al Qaeda’s work). What they HAVE stated is their intent on changing tactics. In the English publication of al Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine the author(s) blatantly suggest they are ready to try a new tactic. Called Operation Hemorrhage, al Qaeda has stated their intent to bleed America dry by adopting smaller, easier to perpetrate attacks that will overwhelm America and its healthcare infrastructure. They call it the “strategy of a thousand cuts”. Our “security phobia” surrounding airport full body scanners and the uproar over whether the scanners take our civil rights away is but a joke to al Qaeda. Ever adaptable, they will strike in a way that will take us by complete surprise. (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, 2010). Their statement that they will stage smaller attacks that are more feasible to pull off, involve less players, less time to launch, and are more frequent suggest tactics such as suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices, or perhaps small scale biological attacks – such as poisoning grocery store produce with botulism.
Homeland Security and other national security agencies must remain open to the possibility of a multitude of tactics to be employed by Islamic radicals. Focusing on one, such as bioterrorism, would be a mistake. While Public Health Departments have a long way to go to be ready in the event of a bioterror attack, America is not ready for attacks by suicide bombers or IEDs either. Healthcare professionals need to be able to recognize the symptoms of biowarfare agents but also need to know how to deal with blast injuries. We rule out one type of terror tactic at the peril of another. We must keep vigilance that any type of method can be used against us. While bioterrorism is a growing threat along with the increases in biotechnology, it has not yet earned the title of the “greatest” threat to the United States. The terrorists who wish to kill Americans by the millions remain the single greatest threat.

CITATIONS
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. (2010). Inspire Magazine. Unknown: Al-Malahem Media Production.
(2010). Skating On Stilts: Why We Aren't Stopping Tomorrow's Terrorism. S. A. Baker. Hoover Institute Press.
Trust for America's Health. (2006). Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Trust for America's Health. (2010). Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Joplin Tornado Victims Experiencing Fatal Fungus

Here is a link to the article about the fungus. Apparently they dealt with this in the Indonesian tsunami but this is the first I've ever heard of it.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-joplin-fungus-20110611,0,5212890.story