When I was a kid, they talked about the "Missle GAP" Today the talk about the Vaccine Gap... Things change,,, and some stay the same.

Kennedy wanted bombs and missles, what does clinton want?

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=121985

US years behind in bioweapons defense

Wednesday, 20 October 1999 23:18 (GMT)

(UPI Focus) US years behind in bioweapons defense By PAMELA HESS WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) - The United States is 25 to 30 years behind in the development of vaccines against biological weapons and must dramatically alter its approach if it's ever to catch up, said Ken Alibeck, former deputy director of the Soviet civilian biological weapons program. "I didn't want to say this, but we have a problem developing protection against biological weapons. Now we have a very significant gap between our defense and what can be (used offensively against us)," Alibek warned the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. Alibek has been one of the CIA's top sources of information on the Russian biological weapons program since his defection in 1992. He said the Soviet Union developed at least 100 strains of disease for use in weapons, but the United States is still developing antidotes for those developed in the 1970s. Developing single vaccines for each strain is an unworkable solution, he said. Instead, he recommends a novel approach: directing research toward strengthening the human immune system to resist all viruses rather than just inoculating against a few. "It's quite a long shot, but in three, five, seven years, we may be able to say biological weapons are not a threat anymore," he said. "If we continue efforts to develop vaccines, we will always be developing new, and new, and new (medicines)." The Defense Department's efforts stop short of Alibek's vision. Military planners are trying to develop vaccines that can handle more than one virus by addressing a common pathogen, defense officials told the committee on Wednesday. Because of Russia's economic troubles an unknown number of the 50,000 to 70,000 employees of biological weapons laboratories may be selling their expertise abroad, Alibek warned. "Russia has at least two strains of plague which are resistant to vaccines," Alibek said. Although Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared an end to the biological weapons program in 1994, Alibek warned that Russia's refusal to allow the United States access to its laboratories makes him concerned that the program has been restarted. "I don't believe Russia is posing a specific threat today, but we have no idea what's happening in a year, in five years," he said. -- Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --

Copyright 1999 by United Press International

-- Helium (Heliumavid@yahoo.com), October 20, 1999

Answers

"I don't believe Russia is posing a specific threat today..."

Doesn't he?

Read Mr. Alibek's book, Biohazard, which leaves no doubt at all that Russia poses a very big threat. And although you wouldn't know it from this UPI article, Alibek also makes it clear that Russia never complied with the bioweapons treaty.

I would be interested to know what, exactly, allegedly made Mr. Alibekov change his mind about the magnitude of the Russian bioweapons threat.

-- Not Whistlin' Dixie (not_whistlin_dixie@yahoo.com), October 20, 1999.