KashifAsrar
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ToI feed dated 20th June 2007.
Kashif
PATHOGEN THREAT
New York: Since 2001, the US has spent at least $44 billion on the costliest, most grandiose germ warfare research programme ever attempted, a media report has said.
The effort, involves developmental work with the deadliest and most loathsome pathogens capable of triggering plagues and epidemics and is being conducted in good part in secret without adequate oversight or adherence to and National Institutes of Health guidelines, and in possible violation of international treaty requirements for transparency, the Humanist magazine claimed in an article titled, America the Beautifuls Germ Warfare Rash.
According to the magazine, not only is the germ warfare drive being funded at levels far higher than appropriate to meet potential threats, but funding for research into other imminent health threats is falling short. For example, in 2006 the NIH got only $120 million to combat influenza, which kills about 36,000 Americans annually, whereas bio-defence received a heaping $1.76 billion to research pathogens such as the bacterium anthrax that claimed five lives in the attacks on Congress and the media in 2001, it said.
The scope of the effort is not only a staggering waste of taxpayer treasure and a perversion of scientific ingenuity but it needlessly puts Americans, and all humanity, at risk, the Humanist article claimed.
Edward Hammond, director of watchdog Sunshine Project, said, Our bio-warfare research is defending ourselves from ourselves. PTI
Kashif
PATHOGEN THREAT
US has spent $44b in germ warfare research
New York: Since 2001, the US has spent at least $44 billion on the costliest, most grandiose germ warfare research programme ever attempted, a media report has said.
The effort, involves developmental work with the deadliest and most loathsome pathogens capable of triggering plagues and epidemics and is being conducted in good part in secret without adequate oversight or adherence to and National Institutes of Health guidelines, and in possible violation of international treaty requirements for transparency, the Humanist magazine claimed in an article titled, America the Beautifuls Germ Warfare Rash.
According to the magazine, not only is the germ warfare drive being funded at levels far higher than appropriate to meet potential threats, but funding for research into other imminent health threats is falling short. For example, in 2006 the NIH got only $120 million to combat influenza, which kills about 36,000 Americans annually, whereas bio-defence received a heaping $1.76 billion to research pathogens such as the bacterium anthrax that claimed five lives in the attacks on Congress and the media in 2001, it said.
The scope of the effort is not only a staggering waste of taxpayer treasure and a perversion of scientific ingenuity but it needlessly puts Americans, and all humanity, at risk, the Humanist article claimed.
Edward Hammond, director of watchdog Sunshine Project, said, Our bio-warfare research is defending ourselves from ourselves. PTI
