Scott Gottlieb

About the author: Physician Scott Gottlieb is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a staff writer for the British Medical Journal.

The slowness with which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the West Nile virus, a virus newly transmitted to the United States by natural means, suggests that the agency will also have trouble identifying the cause of a bioterror attack in time to prevent disaster. Such an attack is likely to feature viruses, which are easy to engineer, produce, and spread. Lack of a comprehensive system for early detection of outbreaks of infectious disease could make bioterror attacks hard to spot. One possible mode of detection is to note increases in appearance of people with certain symptoms in emergency rooms...