In 1984, when the world's remaining smallpox samples were moved to two high security laboratories in Russia and America, no inspections were carried out to verify that other countries had destroyed their stocks of the virus. Language; Watch; Edit; Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon is a fictional docudrama produced by Wall to Wall, showing how a single act of bioterrorism leads to terrifying consequences globally. It has to maintain the illusion of plausible reality in every respect. However, it had miscalculated.In the wake of Nixon's historic abandonment of biological weapons, an international agreement was tabled outlawing their development and production. But in December 1775, the British fort commander reportedly had civilians immunised against the disease and then deliberately sent out to infect the American troops. Browse BFI Southbank seasons. "This docu-drama reports on a fictitious attack made by terrorists using the smallpox virus. In Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997) a demented terrorist launches nuclear missiles under the sea triggering a wave of tsunami that devastate the coast of Southern California. Highlight. Background. Suddenly, seven months later, bioterrorism became a reality and Smallpox 2002 acquired the kind of prescience it had never sought.
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Film-makers also recruited the cooperation of the world's leading experts in bio-terrorism, smallpox epidemiology and … Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon; Genre: Docudrama: Written by : Simon Chinn; Daniel Percival; Directed by: Daniel Percival: Starring: Bolen High; Leigh Zimmerman; Tara Hugo; Narrated by: Brian Cox: … After capturing Montreal, it looked as if they might succeed. In 1989, a senior Soviet bio-weapons scientist defected to the UK. Unrecorded samples left over from the time when the disease was endemic may still exist in other countries. Judging by commentators’ reactions, Smallpox 2002 — Silent Weapon, screened by the BBC in the UK but to be shown in many countries, was an outstanding success in provoking fear and loathing over an epidemic triggered by a terrorist releasing the virus. Alibek claims the Kremlin had a clear understanding that if smallpox was eradicated, and vaccination ended, the virus had the potential to be 'the most powerful and effective weapon ever created to eliminate human life'.There were more bombshells to come. "With straight drama you have a huge advantage. The colonel replied: 'I will try to inoculate the [Native American tribe] with some blankets that may fall in their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself.' "Using hindsight and video diaries the film looks back on the global impact of a silent attack would have on the world. People rushed out to buy gas masks and antibiotics. The audience has already suspended most of their disbelief. Stories started to appear in the press about the threat posed to the world by exotic diseases such as plague, botulism and smallpox.The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.Fiction and reality collide in a future devastated by the effects of a biochemical weapon. Browse BFI Southbank seasons. In some cases it's hard to distinguish between actors’ performances and the real interviews they sit alongside.A large-scale bioterrorist attack may not have happened yet, but those who continue to regard a scenario like this as science fiction do so at their peril. Additional work was done to enhance the virulence of the virus and to combine it with other viruses.It is difficult to assess the real nature of the threat from smallpox from this evidence. In fact, Britain was probably the first nation to come up with the idea of using smallpox to kill its adversaries.Ken Alibek believes that, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, unemployed or badly-paid scientists are likely to have sold samples of smallpox clandestinely and gone to work in rogue states engaged in illicit biological weapons development. More Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon (S01E01) is the first episode of season one of "Smallpox 2002" released on Tue Feb 05, 2002. At the time of the Pontiac rebellion in 1763, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet: 'Could it not be contrived to send smallpox among these disaffected tribes of Indians? It is only available inside the BBC network.Genome is a digitised version of the Radio Times from 1923 to 2009 and is made available for internal research purposes only.