Symposium: Issues in Bioterrorism -Introduction

Few issues have engaged public attention as much as bioterrorism. Since the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the subsequent anthrax contaminations, newspaper headlines bombard us with both real and imagined threats regarding travel safety, compulsory vaccinations, and chemical and biological warfare. Arguments regarding the potential war with Iraq have raised questions about whether biological and chemical weapons should be considered to pose the same degree of threat as nuclear weapons. On a local level, throughout this country, hospitals and health care workers are debating whether or not to be inoculated against smallpox