Britain and the US should lead the way in efforts to prevent and mitigate epidemics caused by bioterrorism or pandemic diseases, a senior adviser to Barack Obama has urged today.
Tom Daschle, a co-chairman of Obama's presidential campaign and former US senate majority leader said: "In order to best defend against them, the US and the UK must embark on a robust and comprehensive collaboration to ensure greater preparedness in the face of harm from biological resources."
Shortly after the September 11 attacks on the US, Daschle's senate office received an envelope containing anthrax. In a paper for the standing commission on national security set up by the influential left-leaning thinktank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, he has appealed for close "biodefence" cooperation between the two countries.
The independent commission, which was set up last year, regularly offers security advice to UK and US officials.
Senior British government officials responsible for countering civil disasters say outbreaks of serious infectious diseases, such as pandemic flu, are among the most serious threats facing the UK.
In the paper, Daschle said: "The threat of bioterrorism will increase exponentially because biological agents used to carry out such attacks will continue to become more accessible and more technlogically advanced, just as our social networks become more interconnected as a result of globalisation."
The US National Intelligence Council judges that a "bioattack" is more likely than nuclear detonation because individuals or terrorist groups could create and wield bioweapons without the support or technological infrastructure of a nation state, he said.
"Progress in molecular biology and in the pharmaceutical industry has eliminated most technical barriers to the construction and use of bioweapons" he added.
"Bioweapons manufacture requires only 'dual use' materials readily available in the open market and leaves no signature," he said in his IPPR national security commission paper. Britain and the US had made progress in planning for a natural influenza epidemic. Daschle notes that according to a US Congress report, a severe influenza pandemic would result in a 4.25% fall in the US GDP in one year.
But, he added, "it is very disturbing that we do not have comparably detailed plans for responding to a bioterror attack. In the event of an outdoor aerosol anthrax attack on London or New York, for example, how will we know who is infected, who needs antibiotics....?"
