Another plane quarantine

Just in case you've already forgotten the fairly recent incident of the plane held in Newark, NJ for hours while the airlines sorted out sick people, here's another small reminder of how vulnerable we are to bioweaponry.

Psst. "Difficult to treat" = "drug-resistant".

U.S. authorities quarantine air traveler with TB

"This is an unusual TB organism, one that's very, very difficult to treat. And we want to make sure that we have done everything we possibly can to identify people who could be at risk,"

Tuberculosis is serious. A positive test for exposure bans you from health care and child care jobs for life. There are several antibiotic-resistant strains, because we've been treating it for so long. Oh, and it kills you slowly and unpleasantly.

Am I saying that these are cases of bioweaponry? Not necessarily; in fact, I don't think it's likely. Bioweaponry, when it is finally used en masse, will be harder to detect and spread more quickly than TB does. No, what these are is....practice. Drills.

Remember that a plague is a national emergency, and that President Bush now becomes dictator at his own discretion in a national emergency. They^TM have to see how fast authorities respond to such incidents so they can design an outbreak that gets past the authorities (the ones who aren't in on it) long enough to take hold. Next will probably come quarantine drills on public buildings.

Ground Zero articles of interest: