UK asks scientists to serve as bioterror barometers

It is always a good day for a reporter when his efforts lead directly to government action, and the bigger the resulting program the bigger the reporter’s ego. One British reporter is feeling particularly good today, after a June report in the Guardian led directly to the British government ordering six scientific organizations to provide an early bioterror warning system. In the story in question, the reporter managed to use a mobile phone number, a fictitious company name, and a free e-mail address to purchase a short section of smallpox virus. The snippet could have been used to manufacture smallpox on a large scale.

At a cross-governmental meeting in August — “Apart from the Queen, everybody was there,” said Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis — the six scientific bodies, which included the Royal Society and the Medical Research Council, were ordered “to alert the science minister if they become aware of any step change in technologies which could make it much easier to construct or modify pathogenic organisms.” This was a strong step forward, especially after the government initially dismissed the Guardian report as a mere stunt. “[They said], ‘this is a media story with a hysterical MP and we will just dismiss it’,” Willis recalled. “That they have gone to such incredible lengths to bring people into the loop demonstrates that this was a very serious issue, which to their credit they have now taken seriously.”

-read more in James Randerson’s Guardianreport