In 1998, Bill Clinton read a book called The Cobra Event, a dramatic novel about a mad scientist developing a virus for acts of bioterrorism. Clinton was so affected by the book that he launched the Strategic National Stockpile, a collection of supplies and medical countermeasures to be deployed on behalf of civilians in the event of a bioterrorism attack. This story verges on apocryphal—different sources tell different versions. But it seems that the era was ripe for concerns over bioterrorism…

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