A biological attack on USA would likely become a pandemic

Thank you ;) [quote]Y. Pestis does not transmit the way you suggest.[/quote] Many survivors of the bubonic plaque (Middle Ages) have written that if you would touch something that a diseased had touched, you would become an infected yourself. Bubunoic plaque is transmissable via breath, touch, and bodily fluids. [quote]Just after 9/11 several letters filled with anthrax were mailed to various people around the country and killed several people. It didn't lead to a pandemic because you need direct exposure to become infected and from there it isn't contagious.[/quote] Exactly. It wasn't contagius. That was the point that saved US from a potential epidemic. However, diseases like bubonic plaque and smallpox are. [quote]It would take a very specialized disease to actually become pandemic. Most of the general stuff you're talking about simply doesn't work. HIV and the flu are more deadly. You could wire a few genes into the flu make it more deadly (perhaps like pandemic flu), but it would still have to compete with the rest of the flu also vying for market share in the disease scape. Deadly doesn't always mean the best transmitter. In fact the most prolific diseases are absolutely harmless. It's a general rule in parasitism that you should be as harmless to your host as you can. Over the short term this means that often the nicer diseases to better.[/quote] If a bioligical attack would occur using smallpox, the results would be horrific. Shocking. Catastrohic. Epidemic. There are no cures for smallpox, only vaccines. Vaccines, however, only work before the infection. Ebola would be even worse (there's not even a vaccine for that, even less a cure). [quote]It's really hard to make a successful pandemic disease, the most likely biological agent would be anthrax and that'll only kill anybody you could powder with it (which by definition isn't pandemic).[/quote] Smallpox and ebolavirus are the dream of every terrorist. Let's take a scenario. A terrorist group somehow gets smallpox into their hands and injects themselves with it. Then they walk around New York, trying to infect as many people as they possible can. So, let's say they infect a hundred people, to stay low. Now, those who have a family infect their wife/husband and children if they have any. So, that makes about 20-40 more infected. The next day the children go to school and the adults either go to work, hang out with their friends or go to have a drink etc. The infected children infect most of their classmates and their teachers. The adults who go to work infect at least some of their co-workers. Those who hang out with their friend infect their friends and then those who were infected infect their classmates, co-workers, friends, etc. After about 2 days from the initial infection the first symptoms settle in. After 2-3 days from the first infection the first death occurs. After a week or so the Center for Disease Control will notice that something unusual is happening. Then they will try to cure the diseased, but with little success. When quarantines are starting to take place and borders are being closed, the infection has spread to many countries, Europe, Asia and everywhere else (just think about how many international flights go from US in one day!) And then we have a pandemic. However, those lucky enough to be clean after the disease is spotted get a vaccine which makes them immune to the horrible disease. Those infected can only be left for dead. So, it won't wipe out human race, but still a very large percent.