Opinion: Mother Nature is not ‘the ultimate bioterrorist’
Despite the menacing track record of emerging pathogens, “Mother Nature is the world’s worst bioterrorist,” a long-overused catchphrase of scientists and public health professionals, is in urgent need of retirement.
Born in the maelstrom of Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed, the saying was meant to warn against fixating on bioterrorism while neglecting the risks posed by naturally emerging pathogens. This warning proved prescient. In the next several years, the all-consuming “war on terror” waged by the U.S. would fuel a tenfold boost in biodefense spending, and the focus on bioterrorism would be so strong that, when SARS hit the world stage in 2003, the editorial board of the journal Nature felt the need to remind its audience that the pandemic was not just a “fire drill” for a terrorist attack, but also a trial run for a future pandemic.
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