
Sverdlovsk Anthrax Leak - ajudson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak
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hentrep
While greatly overshadowed by the nuclear arms race, the US and Soviet
biowarfare programs during the Cold War were absolutely terrifying. Many
Soviet bioweapons scientists defected to the US toward the end of the Cold
War. One of those scientists — Ken Alibekov — shared his experiences in a
thrilling autobiography called Biohazard [0]. According to Ken’s claim in the
book, he actually uncovered the Sverdlovsk anthrax incident through an
epidemiological research project while in medical school. While it’s likely
many of the stories in Biohazard were embellished or altogether fabricated
(vested interests in promoting biowarfare threats), anecdotes from US
scientists working at USAMRIID at the time support many of the Soviet claims.
It’s interesting to ponder how differently the world might have turned if both
sides had access to our modern understanding of genetics, precise editing
tools, and inexpensive sequencing. Biowarfare is insidious for other reasons
as well: lack of damage on physical infrastructure, relatively low development
costs, ability to mimic a natural pandemic, and potential for mass
transmission to name a few. And perhaps that latter one is a saving grace —
the possibility of losing control over a biological weapon makes it a very
risky asset indeed.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohazard_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohazard_\(book\))

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gHosts
My brain couldn't tell me where Sverdlovsk was.... so I look it up....

Then my brain went "Wut!? What's that! Why is that?"

[https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Ozero+Uklonskoye/@58.662...](https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Ozero+Uklonskoye/@58.6628406,61.2573686,5330m)

