Anthonares

Today’s Washington Post has an article about how synthetically-produced pathogens may become a viable means of bioterrorism. The article itself is a fairly broad overview of an immense subject, and as such lacks some important details (like who the researchers are that are working on synthetic microbes, I wanted to download some of their publications). But otherwise it’s an important piece in that the capability for recreation of pathogens synthetically has not been widely covered by the lay press.

We are still at too early a stage to reproduce entire bacteria from their DNA, but we are capable of synthetically producing modified polio virus–and have been for years. Because of the simplicity of viral DNA and gene expression, one needs only to cobble together the strands of nucleotide base-pairs, drop them in a slurry of mashed up cellular proteins, and viola! You or I (unless you are a molecular geneticist or otherwise very careful biochemist) lack the skills, facilities, and motivation for such an exercise. But there may be many folks who don’t. And notice that “funding” was not one of the three requirements. Making synthetic viruses is cheap.

But there probably are many people out there that can satisfy those three requirements. So-called terrorism “experts” don’t believe that groups like Al-Queda are in possession of the skills or the facilities to engineer their own bioweapons, but there are “thousands” of labs, according to a scientist quoted in the article, that do. Scientists are human, complete with their failings and dark desires. Among those thousands of labs is there not one individual bent on destruction, crusade, or jihad?

That “lone wolf” could then either distribute the virus on their own or seek the help of an international terrorism group. Either way, the capability of an individual to kill others has been heightened by the recent advances in synthesizing viral life. No longer can government labs control access to deadly viral strains. The DNA of many of these viruses is available for free online. And no one’s watching.

There is no oversight of the 15 or so mail-order companies that offer made-to-order DNA. Several of these companies screen requests for matches to publishes sequences of viral DNA, but their efforts are ad-hoc and likely not comprehensive. Screening requests for matches is easy, the technology is mature. All that is required to begin effective oversight is government action.

Terrorism is going to be a way of life during the 21st century, hopefully no more than it was in the 20th, but that’s a subject for another post. Terrorism cannot truly threaten world order or destabilize countries unless it is capable of killing even more than a few thousand people at once. Planes are not going to take down governments, true weapons of mass destruction are. A terrorist or group of them with either a nuclear weapon (or radiological weapon in order to include so-called “dirty bombs”) or a bioterror agent are the scenarios we should be most afraid of.

Even a nuclear-armed terrorist may be able to kill only a few million, but a terrorist that distributes either a natural or synthetic virus could wipe out a large fraction of our planet. Yet, for all the spending that has gone to the Department of Homeland Security, all I’ve heard in order to keep me and my family safe from such a scenario is to tape up windows, seal my house with plastic, and stockpile water. Where are the quarantine rehearsals? Where will I go to fetch my SARS-mask? What should I do when such an epidemic strikes near me? Should I go home to my extended family or will the interstates be blocked?

I applaud the Washington Post article for bringing more attention to the real terrorist threat facing this nation and entire world. Individuals capable of killing millions or even hundreds of millions are the curse that technology has brought us. That is terrorism. We must figure out how to combat it not just with armies and police, but by making each individual part of the solution.