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By Category: Biological Weapons

A Bird Flu Death in China. What it Means — and Doesn’t Mean

(Time) Science and news cycles sometimes converge in unhandy ways. That was the case on on January 1, when word came out of Shenzen, a Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, that a 39-year-old bus driver, surnamed Chen, had died of the H5N1 (or bird flu) virus. The deeply personal tragedy for Chen and his family Read More »

January 3, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Biological Weapons, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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A Public Policy Expert Looks at the Bird Flu Threat

(New York Times) In the early 1970s, the Nixon administration and the Brezhnev Soviet regime agreed to mutually destroy their bioweapons programs and signed a treaty called the Biological Weapons Convention. Mr. Brezhnev was convinced that President Nixon was trying to trick him, so he ordered creation of the Biopreparat program in the Soviet Union, Read More »

January 3, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biological Weapons, and Public Health
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Flu research and biological warfare A deadly balance

(The Economist) After the anthrax attacks of 2001, America created the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to advise the health department. Until now the body has exercised a light touch. For example, it did not flinch when, in 2005, researchers at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland reconstructed the Spanish flu Read More »

January 3, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biological Weapons, Bioterrorism, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Outcomes Related to the 7th Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Review …

(VAdvert Press Center) Special Briefing, Thomas Countryman, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Via Teleconference, Washington, DC. MR. VENTRELL: Hi, everyone. This is Patrick from the Press Office. Today we have with us Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation Affairs Mr. Thomas Countryman. He’s going to conduct an on-the-record session today to Read More »

December 30, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Seventh Review Conference of Biological Weapons Convention Adopts Final…

(IEWY News) The Biological Weapons Convention opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force in 1975. It prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, retention, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons and is a key element – along …