Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War (Thorndike Core) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Biological weapons are more frightening than poison gas, and more deadly than 767s loaded with fuel. Bio-terrorism surely poses a much greater risk to the United States than any possible ballistic missile attack from a "rogue" state.

It is likely that an attack on the US with a communicable disease or a natural outbreak of one of the emerging influenza viruses that appear from time to time and have a mortality rate of 30%, comparable to smallpox, could devastate the country and place the Constitution and democracy at risk. The authors make this clear.

"Germs" is not perfect; the authors get the story on the failure of the proposed agreement to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention wrong, because they reported based on only one point of view, and that a tiny minority one.

Nevertheless, "Germs" tells a frightening story, and tells it well and accurately. Anybody interested in U.S. national security, the public health system, and the efforts of our country and our adversaries to develop these terrible weapons must read it.

Page 166, "Since 100 grams of dried Anthrax was theoretically enough to wipe out a small city", on page 216 they recounted when a five pound bag of sugar was used as a prop to explain that if the five pounds were dried Anthrax, it would kill half the population of the city of Washington, the nation's capital, or about 300,000 people. They then go on at length to discredit this example. If on page 166 100 grams of dried Anthrax would wipe out a small city, why would 5 pounds of dried Anthrax, or 2.25 Kilograms, or 2,250 Grams, or 22.5 times of their example on page 166 be worthy of their ridicule? On the same page they also state that theoretically 5 pounds would kill the 300,000.

Hemorrhagic Fevers like Ebola are incredibly lethal, and the symptoms they create are gruesome. If you are interested in the basics of how this type of disease causes death and massive bleeding, this book will not tell you. It is described as a disease that will, "bleed you dry", a great tabloid headline, worthless for understanding the disease. It has been suggested that the terrorists who brought down The World Trade Center could have brought some Bioweapon on board with them. Delivery systems specifically designed to spread disease kill 98-99 percent of the load they carry. How likely would it be that the 1 or 2 percent that would survive a device meant to deliver it alive and lethal would have survived the inferno the planes created? The United States and others have improved on the weapons that deliver these pathogens, and while the efficacy is improved no numbers have been shared. Delivery by aerosol would have been possible, but taking down 2 1500-foot high buildings and many others that surrounded them was evidently enough for one day.

There are excellent books that are referenced in, "Germs", that are vastly superior to this work. Some books were written by defectors from the former Soviet Union (mentioned in this book) who ran Soviet production facilities that could make 300 metric tons of Anthrax every 220 days, others by Doctors from The Center For Disease Control who not only worked in Level 4 Biohazard Labs, they also pursued bugs like Ebola out in the field in Africa. "Scourge", is a recent work that is an excellent history of Smallpox and its eventual, "eradication".

There have been a number of books on these topics, and they seem to break in to two categories, there are those that are written by people who are part of the groups that either produce, track these viruses, or work to create defenses against them. And then there are books like this, that from the bibliography appear to be a summation of other primary sources. The former educate, the latter sensationalize. This is a poorly constructed book that is delivered with an editorial slant.