The threat of biological warfare seems to conquer everyone!! However, what we understand by bioterrorism is use of biological weapons against human population for mainly destructions, which is a matter of concern.
The draft Model State Emergency Health Powers Act of 2001, which is a document designed to guide legislative bodies as they draft laws regarding public health emergencies, has defined bioterrorism as “the intentional use of any microorganism, virus, infectious substance, or biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, or any naturally occurring or bioengineered component, to cause death, disease, or other biological malfunction in a human, another living organism in order to influence the conduct of government or to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.” Biological warfare and bioterrorism are often used interchangeably, but bioterrorism usually refers to acts committed by a sub-national entity, rather than a country.
What happens in biological attack?
Bioterrorist attacks could be caused by virtually any pathogenic microorganism. Well, according to the U.S National Intelligence council, bioterrorism is more likely as a nuclear attack threat wherein huge loss of life and property is experienced. Other defence experts and scientists insist that the possibility of any attack, especially a large-scale one gives the immense challenges to cultivating, weaponizing, and deploying biological agents. Many bioweapon diseases threats, however, lack a corresponding vaccine, and for those that do, significant challenges exist to their successful use in an emergency situation.
Is bioterrorism a genuine threat to us?
We have seen many dangerous pandemics and epidemics till today. The history of biological warfare is a long one to scrutinize. Public health authorities have developed a system to prioritize biological agents according to their risk to national security. To understand this meticulously these attacks are categorized into 3 domains:
Category A: The agents are the highest priority, and these are disease agents that pose a risk to national security because they can be transmitted from person to person and have high potential to cause social disruption. These are anthrax, plague, smallpox and a collection of viruses that cause haemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola, Marburg, Lassa etc.
Category B agents are moderately easy to disseminate and result in low mortality. These include brucellosis, glanders, Q fever, ricin toxin, typhus fever, and other agents.
Category C agents include emerging disease agents that could be engineered for mass dissemination in the future, such as Nipah virus. So now classifying the most recent ones (corona virus) under this category is appropriate.
Now the question arises about Covid-19, was it done intentionally?? Well there are many theories and rumours supporting to this fact.
Ever since this matter has reached at global media, speculation about the discovery, outbreak and exact figures of total death is kept surreptitious. According to recent Washington post which was released a month ago proclaiming about the discovery of this virus done by a Chinese scientist back in 2013 and disclosure of Institute of Virology, Wuhan (BSL-4) collecting and experimenting many undiscovered deadliest viruses. It is been believed that almost 1500 and discovered viruses are stored in the laboratory of Wuhan. Wuhan also took safety in initials about having positive pressure protective clothing which were worn by all scientists and claiming that they had taken all levels of safety and the viruses which had been spread along the city was not from that laboratory.
While the rumours of the Chinese cover-up are unsubstantiated, once can only think about the popular proverb, ‘there’s no smoke, without fire’.
Emerging question with conspiracy of coronavirus and its outbreak, one could prominently reach about this virus as a bioweapon. While according to US report, a group of Chinese scientists in Canada were inculpated for spying into Canada’s National Microbiology Lab (NML) which is known to work on some of the deadliest pathogens.
Dr Francis Boyle, the creator of Bio Weapons Act, also claims that ‘the coronavirus is an offensive biological warfare weapon with DNA-genetic engineering’.
Again, the claims about coronavirus being a biological weapon are unsubstantiated.
A biological attack by terrorists or an unfriendly nation is a remote possibility that nevertheless demands public health emergency response planning. In conclusion, the outbreak of this deadly disease can be considered as a test of humanity and nature’s resistance power. Nevertheless, it’s too early to say who actually wins the battles but we have to focus on unity and integrity among ourselves. Also, we have to appreciate all entities who are working hard for discovery and deployment of vaccines all around us. Because it takes time, in fact not allowing the political, economic, and social lives to collapse and to actually recover back from this crisis.