关键词:
.anthrax
Control of Biological
摘要:
Studies of perceived risk show that fear is disproportionately evoked by certain characteristics of risks. Biological agents are mysterious, unfamiliar, in- discriminate, uncontollable, inequitable, and invisible, all of which are charac- teristics of dreaded risks. The effects of these weapons are also difacult to predict and poorly understood by science. They are physically disgusting, a factor associated with moral aversion. The media tend to highlight terrorist in- cidents, heightening dread and panic still further (in a simultaneous relation- ship). We feel a gut-level fear and are prone to trying to eradicate the risk with little regard to the costs involved. This fear can inouence our ability to assess with accuracy risk versus risk trade-offs, for example, between mundane (but common) risks to human health and those that are more spectacular. Experi- ence with nuclear power, another dreaded risk, suggests that decisionmakers should be particularly careful when dealing with target risks that evoke dis- proportionate dread, because there is a danger of choosing policies whose costs exceed their beneats. An assessment of countervailing dangers is thus particularly important for dreaded risks. Risk trade-off analysis demands that decisionmakers think carefully about how to strike an appropriate balance between competing interests in this case the desire to reduce the threat of terrorism while still promoting legitimate re- search. The article examined a particular policy remedy: controlling access to pathogens and related information as well as the possible countervailing risks. Biological weapons are inherently dual-use commodities. All inputs to bioweapons production are used for legitimate purposes, including in medi- cine. Even variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, is required for some biomedical research.136 One of the most critical inputs the pathogens can be isolated from nature.137 Another important input information is important to research on