Tom Daschle calls for greater U.S.-U.K. bioterror cooperation

Barack Obama have clinched the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, so we should pay attention to what one of his early ednorsers, former senator (D-South Dakota) and former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle says: Britain and the United States should lead the way in efforts to prevent and mitigate epidemics caused by bioterrorism or pandemic diseases. Daschle, a co-chairman of Obama’s presidential campaign, said: “In order to best defend against them, the U.S. and the U.K. must embark on a robust and comprehensive collaboration to ensure greater preparedness in the face of harm from biological resources.” Shortly after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, 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 U.K. and U.S. 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 United Kingdom. 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 globalization.” The U.S. 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 U.S. Congress report, a severe influenza pandemic would result in a 4.25 percent fall in the U.S. GDP in one year. He added, though, that “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….?”