Comments on: Is Bioterrorism Really on the Horizon?

By: Justin Leopold-Cohen

Justin Leopold-Cohen — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:07:17 +0000

In reply to JDDrouin. Hi JD, Thanks for reading and for your comment. I do believe there exists the capacity for bioterrorism to happen. However from my review of the data there does not seem to be any indicator of terrorist groups resorting to that type of attack, instead favoring cheaper more effective weapons.

By: Justin Leopold-Cohen

Justin Leopold-Cohen — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:05:43 +0000

In reply to AndrewP. Hi Andrew, Thank you for your comment. I agree it would take a qualified scientist or foreign government to perpetrate a successful bioterror attack, such as the 2001 American Anthrax attacks. However the point I try to make is that would-be attackers are more likely to resort to cheaper and more effective measures. Even with the 2001 anthrax attack orchestrated by trained scientists only managed to kill five people, and injured less than 20. While absolutely tragic, it does not compare to the 2016 Nice Truck attack that killed 86 people and injured several hundred. The skills to drive a truck are significantly easier to obtain.

By: AndrewP

AndrewP — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 23:49:50 +0000

The greatest bioterrorism threat is not some amateur yahoo who orders supplies and pretends to be a virologist. Domestically. it is a skilled trained person, such as a graduate student or postdoc in virology, or even a full blown professor, who does a little “side project” of their own in a lab that already engineers pathogens. Most likely, such a person would do it for political reasons. The other big threat is foreign, and this would be foreign governments, like China or Ukraine, engineering and using pathogens for geopolitical purposes.

By: JDDrouin

JDDrouin — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 13:34:30 +0000

No, bioterrorism is NOT on the horizon, it’s already here.