In Case of BW

How serious a threat to the nation is biological warfare? Last week, in a 30-page booklet entitled What You Should Know About Biological Warfare, the federal Civil Defense Administration gave an answer designed to take much of the mystery and Sunday-supplement terror out of the subject. CDA's main point: disease germs are valuable as a military weapon, and may be used in war, but no man-made pestilence is likely to sweep the whole U.S.

Fast-spreading pestilences that killed much of the population during the Middle Ages were a product of the verminous times, when little was known about medicine, and virtually nothing was done to enforce public sanitation. In modern countries, germs have a harder life. Normal health regulations would keep a seeded disease from developing into a self-propagating pestilence.

Mysterious new diseases are unlikely. The danger is that old diseases may be spread in new ways, probably by "aerosols" (fine mists) released from aircraft or fired from offshore submarines. Saboteurs could also release such mists, and germs could be used against domestic animals and growing crops as well as against people. But the booklet points out that nearly all infectious diseases can be prevented or cured. BW, it says, "is a special weapon for use against special targets. No kind of biological warfare could kill or sicken every person in a large area or city."

The booklet gives six "survival secrets for biological warfare": P: Keep yourself and your home clean, i.e., don't make things easy for the germs. P: Report sickness promptly, and thus help authorities to spot a BW attack. P: Give all possible help to authorities, i.e., hold still and give a blood sample or take a shot in the arm. P: Don't rush outside immediately after a bombing. The germs may be waiting. P: Don't take chances with food and water in open containers until the danger is over. P: Don't start rumors; don't believe wild stories. You may start a panic that will cost your own life.

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