Weaponisation of Ebola by Muslim terrorists

[ForumMember77]

Seems to fit their MO. Very bad chance of survival for the attacker, so heaven all but guaranteed, good chance of HUGE civilian casualties if he plays his cards right.

Why isn't the west really doing anything about this, doesn't it seem plausible ?

What options are available ?

Don't anyone say more "aid to Africa"............. yes, we know, there's a mess in Africa the aid must flow because they can't clean it up themselves. As per usual.

We don't even have screenings for people traveling to the UK, as far as I'm aware. Is it really so far fetched an idea ?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Seems to fit their MO. Very bad chance of survival for the attacker, so heaven all but guaranteed, good chance of HUGE civilian casualties if he plays his cards right.

Why isn't the west really doing anything about this, doesn't it seem plausible ?

What options are available ?

Don't anyone say more "aid to Africa"............. yes, we know, there's a mess in Africa the aid must flow because they can't clean it up themselves. As per usual.

We don't even have screenings for people traveling to the UK, as far as I'm aware. Is it really so far fetched an idea ?

Yes, it's pretty far-fetched. Ebola is one of those disease that's pretty difficult to catch, so weaponisation of it isn't a very likely scenario. About like weaponising chlamydia.

Boru

[Jackalope]

As far as "doing something about it", I'd be willing to bet that threat assessments etc are being done.

What the powers that be aren't doing is "talking about it" which is typical.

[ForumMember77]

As far as "doing something about it", I'd be willing to bet that threat assessments etc are being done.

What the powers that be aren't doing is "talking about it" which is typical.

Perhaps afraid to give (insert Muslim terrorist group here) ideas ?

Oh no, now I'm turning into a conspiracy theorist.

If it's so hard to catch maybe that's why ? I honestly don't know much about the thing other than possible vectors/origin.

[Jackalope]

As far as "doing something about it", I'd be willing to bet that threat assessments etc are being done.

What the powers that be aren't doing is "talking about it" which is typical.

Perhaps afraid to give (insert Muslim terrorist group here) ideas ?

Oh no, now I'm turning into a conspiracy theorist.

If it's so hard to catch maybe that's why ? I honestly don't know much about the thing other than possible vectors/origin.

I doubt that terrorist groups lack imagination. The powers that be don't want to tip their hand, which is why things are not often spoken of.

As far as communicability of Ebola, if memory serves me, it is spread by contact with infected bodily fluids, not by airborne transmission vectors. Airborne transmission is ideal for weaponization. In addition, you want a biologic that disables or kills readily but not too quickly - as that tends to inhibit secondary infection.

Source - I used to have to know this stuff in my capacity as an NBC NCO in the military. My memory may be faulty. It was a long time ago.

[Anomalocaris]

A terrorist who will blow himself up would also infect himself with a deadly disease so that he could spread it around. It would not be improbable or difficult for a group of dedicated terrorists who are still under western radar to travel to areas where ebola is rampant, get themselves infected, and then travel to a western country under different identities to avoid revealing their recent itinerary in order to spread the disease. The latency period of ebola would give any such human biological bomb several days at least in which to contract the disease and then move undetected into target country.


A really well organized biological terrorism effort on this principle would first embed a cell of dedicated terrorists in the target country. The human biological bomb coming to the country from infected areas would first meet the local cell surreptitiously to spread the disease to the cell, the cell would then travel around to spread the disease. This would make it even more difficult for the authority to trace the origin of the disease and implement effective quarantine measures.

[Jackalope]

I dunno, Chuck - that we haven't seen these kinds if attacks suggests to me that it's either more challenging than that, or perhaps that blowing oneself up is substantially preferable to dying of Ebola.

Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen more Tokyo-style Sarin attacks.

[Anomalocaris]

I think the reason no such human biological bomb attack has occurred is simply because terrorists lack the sophistication to create a biological warfare agent, and natural diseases that human biological bombs could easily and purposefully infect themselves with in the last few years lacked sufficient lethality to really create much terror, like SARS, or lack the ability to transmit from human to human, like bird flu.

Ebola with a death rate of 50-90% and ability to transmit from human to human has the lethality to create the sort of terror which would make it an effective biological terror weapons.

[Jackalope]

I think the reason no such human biological bomb attack has occurred is simply because terrorists lack the sophistication to create a biological warfare agent, and natural diseases that human biological bombs could easily and purposefully infect themselves with in the last few years lacked sufficient lethality to really create much terror, like SARS, or lack the ability to transmit from human to human, like bird flu.

Ebola with a death rate of 50-90% and ability to transmit from human to human has the lethality to create the sort of terror which would make it an effective biological terror weapons.

*If* it were easily transmissible. That appears to not be the case. I agree, if it were, the prospect would be daunting.

[The Grand Nudger]

Source - I used to have to know this stuff in my capacity as an NBC NCO in the military. My memory may be faulty. It was a long time ago.

Hehehe, you forgot to add the preference for things with a long lag between infection and first symptoms. Honestly though, I don't think the terrorists need to bother, the flu is certainly fucking me up right now - I'm ready to surrender. If there was some rebel uprising today - I'd say to hell with it, let em have the place if they let me sleep.