The author, Donald Henderson of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, is particularly worried about the potential of smallpox and anthrax viruses.
Smallpox can survive in the air for more than a day, giving it plenty of time to spread.
Only about one fifth of the American public has been immunized against smallpox, and preparing a new vaccine would be time-consuming. Anthrax, unlike smallpox, does not transmit from person to person. But it kills roughly 80 percent of the people it infects, and may not produce symptoms until 8 weeks after exposure. To combat the threat of bioterrorism, Henderson calls for a major program to improve the quality and availability of vaccines against smallpox and anthrax. He also proposes strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and developing more open, coooperative research programs with Russian laboratories that have the greatest expertise in developing bioweapons.