Are You Ready for a Bioweapons Lab in Your Town?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PDT

In its ongoing efforts to stamp out all things terror-related, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has just released a giant report on its plans to build a mega bio-defense lab where scientists will study the Earth's deadliest diseases for humans and animals. Basically, it will be a real-life version of that lab you saw in the recent A&E revamp of The Andromeda Strain. Sounds awesome, right? The problem is that disease leaks from the lab are not entirely unlikely, according to the report.

According to UPI:

The department also assessed the possibility of a terrorist attack releasing pathogens from the lab — which will work on the most infectious animal diseases, like Foot and Mouth; and on those most deadly to humans, like the Hendra and Nipah viruses. The overall risk assessment for a release at the five mainland sites was "moderate" because of "the potential easy spread of a disease through livestock or wildlife" nearby, the statement said.

The new lab, to be built in 2010, will replace an existing bio-defense lab on Long Island. That lab, called the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, is outdated and no longer useful. DHS wants its researchers to study "zoonotic diseases" that hop from animals to people (can you say "bird flu"?), and to do that they need a facility at "bio-security level 4," the highest level. Plum Island only goes up to level 3. About ten percent of the new facility will be at level 4.

DHS is currently considering five possible sites in the mainland United States. They'd better hope nobody in those towns has read The Hot Zone or seen 28 Days Later.

New Report on Bio-War Lab Danger [UPI via Space War]

Larry Niven Tells DHS to Spread Organ Harvesting Rumors

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:06:59 PDT

There's a small group of science fiction authors who call themselves SIGMA and offer the U.S. government advice on futuristic scenarios. Many of them are invited to conferences and events where they dispense wisdom to security types, and just recently one of them — Larry "Ringworld" Niven — offered the Department of Homeland Security some of the creepiest advice we've ever heard about how to handle problems with overcrowding in hospitals.

National Defense Magazine reports that Niven offered his advice while in a public discussion with his longtime collaborator Jerry Pournelle:

Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.

"The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren't going to pay for anything anyway," Niven said.

"Do you know how politically incorrect you are?" Pournelle asked.

"I know it may not be possible to use this solution, but it does work," Niven replied.

Wait, so does that mean those two new organ-harvesting science fiction movies coming out in the next year — Repo: The Genetic Opera and Repossession Mambo — are plots by the DHS to scare "illegal aliens" away from hospitals? The tentacles of Niven control everything, I guess.

Other authors in SIGMA include Greg Bear (Darwin's Radio, Eon), Sage Walker (Wild Cards), and Eric Kotani (Between the Stars).

Science Fiction Mavens Offer Far-Out Homeland Security Advice [National Defense Magazine]

io9: Department of Homeland Security

Are You Ready for a Bioweapons Lab in Your Town?

Larry Niven Tells DHS to Spread Organ Harvesting Rumors