A Threat Worse Than Terror

A Threat Worse than Terror

In the article “A Threat Worse than Terror” the author Fareed Zakaria argued about the threat of a pandemic verses terror. In Zakaria’s point of view, pandemics could be the greatest threat that the USA and the whole world would face. He even considers pandemics more threatening than terrorism. Supporters of such arguments believe that governments are not taking enough action to prevent this kind of threat, and governments need to re prioritize their threats. The writer in his article used four points to support his opinion, and he illustrates them with examples and facts. His first point was biased on two factors. The second point was growth of China. The third point argued that the US government is spending more money on weapons than pandemics. The fourth point is talking about how governments around the world are not helping each other. In my essay I am going to argue against Zakaria’s points. First, I will analyze the author’s two factors, and support my point with a third important factor. Second, I am going to argue against China’s growth. Third, I am going to show that governments are taking actions to prevent pandemics from spreading. Forth, I will demonstrate that his fourth point supports my argument. Although some people consider that pandemics are more threatening than terror, terrorism can lead to more serious disasters.

In his article, Zakaria says that “one makes a threat assessment on the basis of two factors: the probability of the event, and the loss of life if it happened. On both counts, a pandemic ranks higher than a major terror attack” (page 418). This could be true, but the author forgot to mention a very important third factor which is the ability to take actions to solve the problem. In case of a disease, the ability to take actions is higher. For example, when the bird flu and swine flu occurs the governments of all over the world started to take some actions to prevent the pandemics from...