Is the New Global Threat Biological Warfare or Sustainable Health Security

Fatih Şahiner

doi:10.46683/jmvi.2021.27

Of Genes and Germs: The Agenda of Health in Contemporary Hollywood

CINEJ Cinema Journal ◽

10.5195/cinej.2015.129 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 154-171

Author(s):

Elwin John

Keyword(s):

Human Body ◽

Social Order ◽

Cultural Representation ◽

Biological Warfare ◽

Human Beings ◽

World War ◽

Human Race ◽

Health Security ◽

Popular Cinema ◽

Individual Agency

Within the digital labyrinth, our telling of the medical present and future is also mediated as expected, by a web of technological upgradations. Science and technology may have strengthened the health security of its citizens and so did the old villains/attackers of the human body which have become more powerful. Deadlier viruses have penetrated into the complex genomic structures of the human race which have paved the way for invention of human supportive vaccinations and also destructive possibilities of biological warfare. Through this paper, I study this tensely and anxious predicament of human beings as conceived and represented in popular cinema. With the help of certain select texts, Steven Soderbergh Contagion (2011), Wolfgang Petersen’s Outbreak (1995), Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Marc Forster’s World War Z (2013), I explore the sabotage of a specific individual agency- the human body and the ensuing chaos and disorder. While this paper will encompass the fear of the malign agent or the contagion and the cultural representation of health, I argue that the agenda of health may not localise/concentrate the workings of power to a privileged minority, but rather because of being a common requirement, this agenda can control and disrupt the entire social order of the world. The possibilities of this paper are limited within the framework of ‘virus’ as the agent, ‘health’ as the agenda and the human ‘body’ as the agency where various mediations could occur.

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Anthrax: Real Threat or Useful Scare Tactic?

Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal ◽

10.15695/vurj.v5i0.2824 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah N O'Donohue

Keyword(s):

Media Coverage ◽

The United States ◽

United States Government ◽

Biological Warfare ◽

Health Security ◽

Early 21St Century ◽

The Subject ◽

Nuclear Missiles ◽

Low Incidence ◽

Tactic Research

In the years following the attacks of September 11, both the United States Government and the general public have become increasingly aware of the threat of terrorism and its many forms. Not only do we fear "weapons of mass destruction" such as nuclear missiles, but also microscopic spores such as anthrax which has opened up a whole new world of "bioterrorism." On June 12, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act in response to the "Amerithrax" attacks in late 2001. However, the risk of biological warfare use is not well understood, and bioterrorism is a threat without precedent. The extremely low incidence of real biological events in the early 21st century contrasts with the outburst of political rhetoric and mass-media coverage surrounding the subject. Thus, the question arises whether bioterrorism is a real threat or merely a useful scare tactic. Research shows that anthrax is both a real threat—on account of its contagiousness, durable spore structure, complex lethal toxin, and demonstrated use as a weapon of biological warfare—and a useful scare tactic as the bacterium has become a public obsession and the subject of countless hoaxes. America and its allies must confront the reality of bioterrorism by organizing defenses for possible attacks and by further investigating the nature and properties of anthrax and other pathogenic agents—after all, knowing your enemy is the best strategy in any type of warfare.

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