Argumentative Essay On Peace And Conflict Biological Weapons

The technological advancements have immense contribution to human development. In the same time, the cutting edge science is also able to produce, in a very facile and genuine manner, dangerous substances that might threaten people’s health and security. The biological weapons have become significant threats for the nations’ welfare, being easy to be produced and finding the administrations unprepared to deal with a biological attack. The United States central and locals administrations should develop plans to inform and protect the people against the biological threats, because U.S. citizens are not properly informed about the risks of the bioweapons and they do not know how to prevent or cure from their outcomes.
First of all, after reading Hylton’s article in New York Times, “How Ready Are We for Bioterrorism” I understood that the safety measures and the defense mechanisms against such threat are currently very low in United States, as a biological attack cannot be predicted nor anticipated and moreover, there are no resources and capabilities for answering and recovering from a biological attack.
Secondly, the fact that any graduate – school student can produce a biological weapon, because s/he disposes of the substances and technologies to create it, prompts me to argue that in order to avoid the outcomes of the bioweapons administrations should start their defense mechanism by restricting the use of the substances that might constitute an ingredient for the biological weapons. This measure sustains the saying “better prevent than cure”. Besides the fact that such a measure would diminish considerably the risks of biological attacks, by taking out the ingredients that could produce the bioweapons, it would also give authorities and administrations time to develop a biodefense strategy, focusing on identifying the products that enter United States from imports, and scanning their composition.
Thirdly, I consider that biodefense is an aspect that regards the national security and the population’s health. Still, United States population lacks the proper information about what biological threats or bioweapon represent, focusing more on the bomb as the springs of terrorism. Administrations should make a significant effort in making the United States population to be aware of the biological threat, so that the risks to be known and everybody to understand what are the threats that can harm them. As Hylton’s article indicated, people are looking for something else when it comes to terrorist attacks, omitting precisely the elements that could impact them severely.
Parallel with an information campaigns about the risks of biological attacks, administrations should work together with lab scientists and anti – terrorism agents for designing vaccines against potential bioweapons. Research must be underpinned continuously in order to examine the risks of various bioweapons, how could they prevent the population and how there can be avoided the risks of suffering the outcomes of the bioweapons, though the use of vaccines.
Anthrax, swan flu, bird flu, are just several examples of viruses that are considered biological weapons. They have spread throughout the world and their impact was significant, as there were people dying because of these diseases.
U.S. administrations should increase the transparency regarding the seriousness of the biological threats and they should design plans to protect the populations against any bioweapon, but for this, people need to be informed about the risks and about how they can prevent those risks. The recent events, such as swan flu, bird flu or anthrax are some of the most well-known infections that created severe damages and in some parts of the world people did not have time to respond promptly by combating the viruses with vaccines or sustaining information campaigns about the gravity of the viruses. The fact that people died, as a result of the lack of proper information and unavailable treatment, should determine scientists and administrations to start acting, in anticipating similar actions, for which they should be prepared to properly inform, prevent and cure, where necessarily.