Could the US recover from a sneak biological attack from either China or Russia ?

Question

What defence or contingencies does the US have for such an attack ?

...By biological, I specifically mean Germ Warfare.

Answer 1

Biological Warfare is a double edged sword, you have to make your agent destructive enough to massively contaminate and then to kill or damage the contaminated in ways that prevent them from being effective. On the same rote, you want the disease NOT to be so contagious and/or dangerous that it would decimate your own citizenry by spreading like wild fire. In other words, there is some measure of inherant control on the nation releasing the agent (assuming some sanity) in that they're not going to release the most powerful agents out there because of the effect it would have on themselves.

In the meantime, we have defenses against a large number of the most common biological agents, assuming they're caught in time. That's certainly not the ONLY response we'd make if we found out we'd been attacked by a major world power like that (since that is tantamount to an act of war AND a geneva convention crime against humanity).

Answer 2

First off ... Tyler is WAY out there on his response. There is no "counter attack" for biological weapons ... never has been. Do we have a defense against biological attacks? We have the military. If you are referring to CPC (CBRNE Pharmaceutical Countermeasures) yes, we have those also. They are prescribed medications that can be given at any pharmacy. We have strategic national stockpiles that carry an abundance of these meds. Since biological warfare causes the same symptoms as a virus or pathogen, we have 24/7 monitoring in major cities for these at both the detection level and medical monitoring. Of course certain bio agents are quicker and more lethal, but ... we have come a long way.

Answer 3

A biological attack is an attack with a weapon of mass destruction. The United States policy has been for 60 years to respond in kind. The only WMD's in the American arsenal are nuclear. Russia or China neither one would try a sneak biological attack--I don't think either country has a doubt that if they did --their countrys would be smoking radioactive ruins. What you need to worry about is Islamofascist terrorists obtaining WMD technology from rogue countries like IRAN or North Korea.

Answer 4

Could Y/A answers recover from a rash of semi-intelligent questions??

What defense or contingencies does the US have for such an attack?

Answer 5

That rather depends on which biological agent they choose.

Answer 6

yes,but i doubt that either or both of them could recover from our retaliation

Answer 7

Not much BUT do you think we are going to sit back or take them out to lunch and try and understand them ? The Japanese are lucky they still exist today