Q&A with D.A.

What does "weaponized anthrax" really mean?

[Laughs ruefully]. "Weaponization" was a term used in the military. One major criterion for putting an agent on [a defense] threat list was some evidence the organism had been weaponized… [put] in a bomb or a missile or a shell that would be a problem for the military forces. We had clear evidence from the very first case in Florida that there was anthrax produced in the dried form, which caused inhalation anthrax. And no one produces anthrax in that way for any other purpose than for causing disease and using this as a biological weapon. 

In the public's mind, weaponized anthrax is a highly refined anthrax that's likely to cause inhalation anthrax.

That's right, but right from the beginning that's what we had. Somehow the "weaponized" took on some kind of special meaning, that this had to be something very different done to it. But if you're going to make anthrax to use as an agent, as a potential aerosol, this is what you do.

How likely is it that smallpox would be used as a bioweapon?

I think it's unlikely in one sense, less likely than anthrax. I think it is more difficult to get ahold of the virus itself. It is more difficult to manufacture than anthrax. Every step of the way it's that much more difficult than anthrax. But the risk as we see it is not zero. That's the problem. Should an outbreak get started, this could be really quite serious. I think about 70 to 80 percent of the population is susceptible. 

But you're against immediate smallpox vaccination of every American?

One in a thousand will have complications of some sort, and deaths will be about two per million. We'll have also about two per million who will have neurological damage. This is not inconsequential. 

Is it a good idea to stockpile 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine?

I think the idea of stockpiling the vaccine is very good. What is the proper figure I don't know. 

As the man who led the smallpox eradication effort, does it enrage you that you have to worry about this?

Yeah. There's a feeling of immense disappointment that this happened, and at the same time, of betrayal on the part of the Russians. In the most ugly way. I still get angry as I think about it because the Russians actually played a major role in the eradication program. Throughout the program, they provided 25 million doses per year of the vaccine. Without that amount of vaccine, we never would have succeeded. 

The Russians were able to produce tons of smallpox virus per year. Is it all accounted for?

More important than that, perhaps, is the fact [that] the technique for producing large quantities of smallpox virus, of course, rests in the minds of a number of people who have worked there. Half or more of the scientists have left the laboratories. Some have gone to the United States, some have gone to other places in Europe, some have gone to countries that have been involved in terrorist activities. If it hadn't been for the Soviet program, we would not be where we are today in regards to biological weapons.