zlacker

> In a free society, preventing and undoing a bioweapon attack or a pandemic is much harder than committing it.

Is it? The hypothetical technology that allows someone to create an execute a bio weapon must have an understanding of molecular machinery that can also be uses to create a treatment.

>>fallin+(OP)
I would say...not necessarily. The technology that lets someone create a gun does not give the ability to make bulletproof armor or the ability to treat life-threatening gunshot wounds. Or take nerve gases, as another example. It's entirely possible that we can learn how to make horrible pathogens without an equivalent means of curing them.

Yes, there is probably some overlap in our understanding of biology for disease and cure, but it is a mistake to assume that they will balance each other out.