In my routine tour of amazon for new books on bioterrorism, I was surprised to find this product. Apparently this kit is being sold as a game for children. The object of the game? A bioterrorism scenario, leads to taking a DNA fingerprint of a crime scene and then to determine if it is smallpox. The new millenia chemistry kit gift for kids.
Since the kit "contains no smallpox" it seems safe enough, but having a kit that has a component that presumptively will test positive for smallpox presents an opportunity for a hoax waiting to happen?
Despite the smart move of Cong. Lamar Smith introducing a federal criminal statute to address the anthrax hoaxes that proliferated after 9/11, the Senate failed to pass The Anti-Hoax Terrorism Act of 2001 (H.R. 3209), a statute meant to address the flood of anthrax hoaxes. Instead, the WMD statutes and "communications of false information" crimes continue to be the available criminal statutes against bioterrorism hoaxes, which carry penalties of reimbursement to law enforcement responders as well as possible prison time.
Here's the product:
I am surprised an educational kit labeled as "DNA screening for smallpox" ever got to market, even though the instructions state that the kit is "a simulation of molecular biology tests used for the detection of the smallpox virus." The potential for a hoax is cause for concern!
ReplyDelete