"Even though people are lukewarm about the vaccine for prevention," he said, "nobody is questioning the need to be ready in the event of an actual case".
The Russian economy, helped by high oil prices, has performed better than expected a year ago, but Mr. Putin has reportedly called for a tight budget for next year, to be ready in the event of lower energy prices.
"It clearly is an act of terrorism to send anthrax through the mail," Mr. Thompson said on Fox News, adding that it was only prudent for the government to buy more antibiotics to be ready in the event of more anthrax attacks.
(The term refers to the defensive circle created by the wagons of colonial-era settlers, effectively creating a mobile fort against attacks by indigenous Africans. Settlers would hide inside these wagon forts with their guns on the ready in the event of an attack).
At a fringe meeting at the Labour conference in Manchester, he expressed "surprise" and "disappointment" that Mr Miliband had not had a set of proposals on English votes for English MPs, or an English parliament, ready in the event of a Scottish "No" vote.
Funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in the National Institutes of Health, MIDAS has two missions, says its director, Jim Anderson: first, to advance the science of modeling infectious disease transmission, and second, to be ready in the event of a national emergency.
