As for smallpox, routine vaccinations in the United States ended in 1980, the year the virus was officially eradicated, so few Americans still have immunity today. The Centers for Disease Control will make 40 million new doses of the vaccine available beginning in 2004, but critics say that, in the event of a multi-city terrorist attack, hundreds of millions of doses will be needed to prevent the often fatal disease from spreading throughout the country.
On the diplomatic front, Block argues in favor of strengthening the 1972 bioweapons treaty - ``giving it some `teeth,``` he says, by requiring reciprocal international inspections to assure treaty compliance.
``Embarrassingly,`` he notes, ``the United States itself has steadfastly resisted certain attempts to establish provisions for inspections`` - in part to protect the interests of large American pharmaceutical and biotech companies against industrial espionage.
``As the world`s remaining superpower,`` Block maintains, ``the United States bears the unique responsibility to take the moral high ground in this process, assuming a leadership role in support of meaningful weapons treaties.``
He also makes a strong plea to his fellow biologists to break their silence and take a stand against the proliferation of biological weapons.
``Some folks simply do not take the threat seriously,`` he observes, ``but they should. Others worry about provoking a widespread public backlash against biotechnology in general that might have a chilling effect on their own legitimate biological research.``
None of these excuses stands
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Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
650-723-9296
Stanford University
11-Jan-2001