David Stipp

David Stipp is a science writer for Fortune, a business newsmagazine. In the following viewpoint, written shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon, he writes that the United States is dangerously unprepared for possible acts of terrorism using biological agents such as smallpox and anthrax. America must spend resources on developing cutting-edge diagnostic tools and therapies, increasing its stockpile of vaccines and medicines, and working out plans to coordinate health and safety responses to biological warfare, he argues.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is the problem with lumping biological weapons together with other weapons of mass destruction, according to Stipp?
2. What did a mock bioterrorist attack in Denver...