Political Quotes

“In response to the emergent threats of bioterrorism, Congress will take concrete steps in the coming weeks to strengthen our Nation's public health infrastructure. To fully prepare for the potential bioterrorist attacks, we will have to deal with a wide variety of public health issues including vaccinations and food safety and government stockpiling of antibiotics. In doing so, we must not forget to address the issue of antibiotic resistance. The links between antibiotic resistance and bioterrorism are clear. Antibiotic resistant strains of anthrax or other bacterial agents would be extremely lethal biological weapons, and they are already a reality. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, during the Cold War, Russian scientists engineered an anthrax strain that was resistant to the tetracycline and penicillin classes of antibiotics. We can only assume that anthrax and other bacterial agents could also be engineered to resist antibiotics, including new valuable antibiotic therapies like Cipro. Antibiotic resistance is also relevant to the threat of bioterrorism in other significant ways.”