By the time Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig stood at the podium at the Stanford Barn, the crowd before him had heard a day and a half of stories about how symptoms of everyday illnesses could portend anthrax and other deadly agents. So, when Danzig began his speech at the Hoover Institution conference on biological and chemical weapons, the situation he described didn t sound outlandish. He asked those present to imagine a year, call it 18. Troops are massing at Fort Riley in preparation for war. Some start to get sick.
Flulike symptoms worsen until a number begin to die.
The illness spreads to the civilian population, races through the units of U.S. allies, and even hits the enemy. In a matter of months, deaths in the United States exceed one million, Danzig said. That chilling scenario was real. In 1918, as the United States fought World War I, an influenza epidemic struck, hitting U.S. troops, then spreading to civilians. About 600,000 people died, a number proportional to 1.4 million in today s population.