News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Sports
Diversions
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
News
Bio-terrorism discussed
By Teodora Vasileva
Published:
Thursday, January 30, 2003
Media Credit: charles martin
�Keeping one step ahead,� is the goal discussed by Colonel Anthony M. Rizzo of the United States Air Force. The director of Development For Operational Medicine explains how important it is that the U.S. stops Bio-terrorism.
The Department of Nursing Science at SCSU, teamed up with the United States Air Force, to sponsor a seminar on bio-terrorism and emergency preparedness.
The seminar took place Jan. 27 in Atwood Memorial Center. It was opened by Susan Johnson Warner, chair of the nursing department, who said that the seminar was an excellent opportunity for students taking Cross Cultural Nursing and Global Health to gain awareness and knowledge.
The keynote speaker was Col. Anthony M. Rizzo, SFS (senior flight surgeon), Medical Corp., and director of the development center for operational medicine (DCOM) with the United State Air Force. DCOM is basically "the think-tank of Homeland Security." The department is located in Brooks Air Force Base in Texas and reports directly to the Surgeon General of the Air Force. It has key importance to national security and bio-terrorism.
His very vivid presentation was divided into two parts: "Keeping One Step Ahead" and "Development Center for Operational Medicine."
The issues of bio-terrorism are especially relevant after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Rizzo, however, argued that the world is the same but the United States was "awakened."
Possible scenarios
U.S. citizens have grown up never considering themselves targets of terrorist attacks. Rizzo showed three very possible scenarios, however.
These scenarios exposed the vulnerabilities of the national security system, which could lead to huge negative economic and social consequences due to the high-level intertwining of the national economic branches.
In one of his scenarios, he proved how the closing of a major employer in a single state could very quickly shut down the whole economy of the country and plunge into a recession.
He stressed that civilians, as well as many local and state governments, are not fully prepared for a bio-terrorist attack. There are many discrepancies in the legal framework, which make, for example, a national quarantine law unenforceable.
Since current terrorist organizations are free of bureaucratic mechanisms, they are very easy to adapt to the changes and are ready to strike unexpectedly. The purpose of Homeland Security is to always outthink them and "...be faster at it" (Gen. Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff).
Rizzo stated many problems which have prevented US so far from being fully effective in its Homeland security. Most of them are legal issues he said prevent us from doing what we have to do for home defense.
For example, he mentioned a device, which his department has recently invented called Remote Casualty Location Assessment Device which can detect the pulse and respiratory activity of a trapped victim behind a 15-ft. concrete wall or 60 ft. of open air. They were allowed to use it as late as five days after the attack on the Twin Towers due to legal technicalities.
That is why DCOM is organizing a Legal Conference on April 28-29, in Texas, which will address critical legal issues that will be presented after that before Congress for consideration.
The danger of probable bio-terrorism attacks consists more in the spread out terror among the population and paralyzing of the national economy rather than in an actual fatal ending for a huge portion of the population.
According to Rizzo, one of the sure ways to prevent such attacks is by actually taking the weapon out of the hands of organizations like Al Qaeda or people like Saddam Hussein.
A possible bio-terrorism scenario is the small-pox threat. The US has to send a clear message to the terrorists that a good portion of the population is immunized against small pox and thus, it is already ineffective to launch an attack using this type of bio-agent.
When asked by a member of the audience about the most probable type of bio-terrorist weapon to be used against the U.S., Rizzo said that it very much depends on the attacker. According to unclassified data, he said Iraq has anthrax agents, but did not disclose any information the agents in possession of Al Qaeda.
The fear of attacks is much higher than the possibility of one, but the key to success in dealing with it is in education.
He stressed the importance of educating the nurses and other medical staff of being able to work outside a hospital in cases of post-terrorist attack conditions.
"Risks are usually zero," he highsaid. "But it's the terror and uneducated fear" that make things go worse. "Good intelligence is always better than bad intelligence."
That is why the Department of Homeland Security together with DCOM are working on resource plans, especially designed for the US situations, rather than adapted from countries like Israel which have always had the threat of terrorism at their threshold.
He concluded his speech with the problem of better educating the public and he mentioned a project his Department is working on - Citizens Guide and Pamphlet, written specifically for civilians. The pamphlet will soon be made available to the American families.
He also informed the audience of a number of ongoing projects and exercises going on, like "Alamo Alert," "Free State response 2002," "Pale Horse," (small-pox drills) "Safe at Home" (about including the National Guard in the bio-terrorism resource planning), etc.
Since the USA is very diverse nation, this broad-based education should be carefully designed to fit the needs and mentality of the different ethnic groups.
According to Rizzo the country has gone a long way for a very short time and to his delight, the military is now climbing up the ladder of public trust.
The audience of the seminar consisted of more than 30 people, mainly nursing students, faculty and guests.
