News & Perspective

Environmental tests showed no signs of ricin contamination at an airport mail facility in Greenville, S.C., where an envelope containing the poison was found last week, according to the US Postal Service (USPS).

(CIDRAP News) – Mexico closed its border to livestock from the United States last week because of concern that a herd of US cattle bound for Mexico had foot-and-mouth disease, but the border was quickly reopened when the disease was found to be a relatively harmless look-alike.

(CIDRAP News) – Despite progress in the past 2 years, local emergency response agencies in the United States remain dangerously unprepared for major terrorist attacks, according to a new study by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank.

(CIDRAP News) – A large-scale exercise to test the ability of government to respond to terrorism begins today with simulated signs of a biological attack in Chicago and a mock "dirty bomb" explosion in Seattle.

(CIDRAP News) – Citing the likelihood of war with Iraq within days, federal officials have raised the terrorism alert level to "high" and launched "Operation Liberty Shield," a set of protective measures that includes increased food security and public health vigilance.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using an advertising campaign to urge Americans to store emergency supplies and take other steps to prepare for potential terrorist attacks, including biological and chemical attacks.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials today raised the nation's security threat level from "elevated" to "high" because of intelligence reports indicating an increased risk of Al Qaida attacks on Americans at home or abroad. "High" is the second-highest of the five threat levels, after "severe."

Editor's note: This story was updated Jan 30, 2003, with additional information from the Department of Health and Human Services.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush yesterday proposed an initiative, called Project Bioshield, to speed the development and production of vaccines and treatments for smallpox, anthrax, botulism, and other diseases that could be spread by terrorists.