Rating: 
Summary: Leaves Something To Be Desired
Review: GERMS by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad
is the story of the emergence of the modern threat of
biological warfare to the United States, and the US government's
attempts to meet that threat.The story begins with the 1984 attempt by followers of the guru
Baghwan Sri Rajneesh to influence local elections in Oregon by
contaminating local restaurants with salmonella toxin. It then
moves on to discussing the emergence in the late 1980s of
intelligence on the monster Soviet biowarfare effort; the
worries of the US military over Saddam Hussein's biowarfare
arsenals during the Gulf War; the misadventures of UN arms
inspectors after the war trying to account for that arsenal;
the nerve-gas attack on a Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinrikyo
sect in 1995; and the attempts of US government officials and
other interested parties to come up with a response to the threat. GERMS takes a narrative view on the subject, following the
activities of individuals ranging from Nobelist Joshua
Lederberg to US biowarfare expert Bill Patrick and to
President Bill Clinton. This is a journalistic approach, not
too far off what might be seen on a CBS NEWS special report or
a Discovery Channel program. I think some people might enjoy this approach, and it might be
useful for someone new to the topic of bioweapons. As for
myself, I found it exasperating. It may be my engineering
background showing, but I kept wishing the authors would get
to the point instead of rambling on about who went to where
and who spoke to whom. That may be an overly severe take on the matter, but it does
seem hard for me to understand why an entire chapter was
devoted to the Rajneeshi salmonella attack, when it seemed
to me that the whole matter could have been explained much
more concisely in two pages, and would have been much easier
to follow and understand. The same could be said of all the
other chapters as well. I think this whole book could have
been rendered down into a 40 page article at most and been
as or more informative and certainly far more concise. I also suppose that I am biased because immediately after
reading GERMS, I picked up Eric Croddy's CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL
WARFARE, which I have to regard as *the* definitive work on
the subject, though it tends to go to the other extreme and
provide literally exhausting detail. However, it still makes
GERMS look amateurish and superficial. I cannot recommend this book. I have written up some notes
on these and other books, and those interested in the subject
might drop me a line before going on to tackle more
sophisticated materials on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Bioterror Detection System Planned - Right.
Review: Germs" convincingly underscores the fact that our government cannot protect us from the impending disaster that will, according to top authorities, come to America in cataclysmic proportion. The best our government can do is respond to the attack and attempt to save as many lives as possible. What is so amazing about this book is, by the time you are a third through it you are amazed that we are not all dead. As the book clearly points out, IT IS NOT because of the competence of our FBI, CIA, CDC or other government agencies. The authors clearly point out how time after time our government intelligence and health agencies rise to each occasion and fly the flag of ineptitude; and now we sadly realize this (sic. September 11th ). The authors begin and end the book illustrating that biological weapons are, in contrast to other weapons of mass destruction, comparatively easy to produce. Nuclear weapons are expensive, extremely difficult to build and relatively easy to detect. Biological weapons are none of the above. Germs should convince you that the next war will be fought in the heartland of America and will be carried out by either rogue states, terrorist groups or lone actors. "Individuals can make war with these new weapons", Joshua Lederberg, biologist and Nobel Laureate, warned President Clinton in 1998. After which Clinton told the New York Times that neither nuclear nor chemical weapons are as frightening as what he has learned about germ warfare. Miller, Engelberg and Broad have done a great service by giving all Americans a wake-up call. An alarm that goes beyond the cold war nuclear scare of the 60's because there are no germ shelters that can be built and used effectively. When the biological attack begins you will not know it, it will only be days after the attack that symptoms occur, then donning of a bio-suit is too late. To say this is a disturbing book is an understatement. The report that Russia has developed lethal, futuristic germs, including a super-anthrax; "germs meant to seize control of the human metabolism, causing a body to self-destruct," is more than unnerving. Today, in our world, biotechnology is coupling with virology and in the words of the authors new kinds of "designer pathogens that can defeat drugs, antidotes and vaccines" are being produced. The final sentence in the book is worth repeating. "We remain woefully unprepared for a calamity that would be unlike any this country has ever experienced." Apocalyptic. Highly Recommended
Rating: 
Summary: This book may influence your thinking on Iraq
Review: I read Germs in January, 2002, when it looked as if the U.S. was about to go to war with Iraq once again. Needless to say, this was a timely book to read. Miller et al take the reader on an instructional history trip through the hidden biowarfare programs of several nations: the U.S., the ex-Soviet Union and Iraq. I say "instructional" because the details behind the biowarfare programs of each of these nations is presented in such a way as to make their significance clear, but not to unnecessarily dramatize them. The facts in and of themselves are so terrifying that the authors need not exaggerate them to make their point. In Germs it is revealed that while the U.S. had an extensive biowar program in the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union had a program which drarfed that of the U.S. This is particularly frightening in view of not only the insane quantities of toxins they produced, but the lengths to which they went to breed new strains of super-vruses which would resist all known forms of treatment. As with nuclear science, the end of the Cold War left a large number of unemployed Russian bioengineers looking for a way to feed themselves. Enter Iran and Iraq. The authors of Germs lay out the evidence of Iraqi efforts to produce bioweapons, most of which was turned up during the U.N inspections following the first Gulf War. They raise questions (without answering them) regarding the possibility that Gulf War Syndrome might be related to the release of Iraqi germ weapons or their inadvertant destruction by coalition forces. Whatever the exact details are, they make a clear case that Iraq did not renounce a commitment to have such weapons as part of their military arsenal. If you feel like you need more information about a subject which isn't often discussed in detail in the general media, Germs is a good place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Contagious Reading
Review: For the most part, "Germs" is the history of America's biological weapons program. Certainly, Miller, Engelberg, and Broad tell this story effectively, albeit with a bit too much detail for my taste. But this is probably because I read "Germs" to answer two questions, which are central concerns of many Americans but not the true subject of this book. Stated as questions, these concerns are: 1) Are repeat anthrax attacks on the United States possible? 2) Is the threat posed by Saddam Hussein real? In brief, the answers to both questions that "Germs" supplies are: Yes, very. Overall, this is disturbing and eye-opening reading.
Rating:
Summary: Well researched and documented.
Review: Three reporters from The New York Times survey the recent history of biological weapons and sound an alarm about the coming threat of the "poor man's hydrogen bomb." Germs begins ominously enough, recounting the chilling attack by the followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1984 on the Dalles, Oregon--no one died, but nearly 1,000 were infected with a strain of salmonella that the cult had legally obtained, then cultured and distributed. ... While the U.S. maintained an active "bugs and gas" program in the '50s and early '60s, bio-weapons were effectively pulled off this country's agenda in 1972 when countries around the world, led by the United States, forswore development of such weapons at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The issue reemerged in the early '90s thanks to Saddam Hussein and revelations of the clandestine and massive buildup of bio-weapons in remote corners of the Soviet Union. The book's description of the Soviet program is horrific. At its peak the program employed thousands of scientists, developing bioengineered pathogens as well as producing hundreds of tons of plague, anthrax, and smallpox annually. The authors conclude that while a biological attack against the United States is not necessarily inevitable, the danger of bio-weapons is too real to be ignored. Well-researched and documented, this book will not disappoint readers looking for a reliable and sober resource on the topic.
Rating: 
Summary: Germs falls apart when it ceases to be infotainment
Review: Since September 11th, many readers have been forced to get up to speed on topics as diverse as radical Islam and biological weapons. Germs is helpful with the latter, although it can't quite decide whether to be entertainment or scholarly. The first half is a good read because it resembles the best of the true crime genre; after the authors plunge into the Gulf War and the policy implications of biological warfare it gets a little too heavy for an introductory book.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Policy Wonking
Review: The first half of this book was fun, when they talk about the germs and the damage they can do. After the 1991 Gulf War, the book is endless handwringing about how to protect our soldiers and civilians. Forgettable luminaries are paraded across the page to come to the conclusion that America is at risk, but nobody really wants to spend any money.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Scary
Review: My biggest fear when picking up a book like this is that it is going to be weighted down in a ton of 45 letter words that bog the reader down like a medical text would. Well this book is far from that - the authors did add in the medical names for the germs but that was the end of the dry medical mumbo jumbo. The book reads like a good investigative report, it keeps you interested through the full book. They really spend most of their time covering the USSR / Russian, Iraqi and American programs and the horrible little germs that they created. The amount of deadly germs these guys created was really amazing. Why do you need to create enough to kill everybody on the earth 5 times over when you already have that ability with your nuclear weapons? It is also interesting the bits of info they drop into the book about some of the other countries and what they have tried to do. Overall the book is a bit scary i.e. the sicknesses that are out there are really awful. To think that some crazed terrorist or odd ball could get his hands on something like this is not a happy thought. What made it even more interesting is that the book came out right before the Anthrax attacks of 2001. The book is not a how to book on creating the germs or any deep biology textbook; if that is what you are looking for you will be disappointed. It is an interesting report that will get you thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Read
Review: This book makes for a very interesting read. The coverage of the Soviet programs was particularly fascinating. The list of references was also appreciated. The writers cover a broad range of issues, but do not delve very deeply into the biochemistry of how bioweapons work. Research on the synthesis and employment of biotoxins was also lacking. The writing itself was a bit rough in some places, but overall this book is a great springboard into this topic.
Rating:
Summary: Writen for the lay-person, not someone in the field
Review: I was somewhat disappointed after reading the credentials of the authors,I expected more.The information regarding basic microbiology was high school. Most of the book was about politicians and agenda rather than about the science. The title "Germs" made me suspicious of who the book audience was since noone in medicine uses the term. Nevertheless, is was a good general overview for someone with no previous knowledge on the subject which I'm sure is what it was intended for. I suppose I had placed higher expectations on it prior to reading.
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