As Winston Churchill was working to form the United Nations after WWII, he famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste." It's an Opportunity to do Things You Could Not do Before
SARS-CoV-2 arrival presented an opportunity to do things those in power could not have done without the pandemic
I recently read Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby. This book discussed the history of Lyme disease but most interesting to me were the bits about the U.S. bioweapons program focused on developing bug-borne biological weapons from 1950 to 1970. The author interviewed Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe’s discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong. I was aware of the U.S. bioweapons program but not its use of ticks for the intentional release of biological agents during the Cold War.
The United States had an offensive biological weapons program from 1943 until 1969. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled biological agents to be deployed as potential weapons which included bacteria that are the causative agents of anthrax, tularemia and the plague, to name a few.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon issued his "Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs" ending all offensive aspects of the U.S. bio-weapons program. It wasn’t until 1975 that the U.S. ratified both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)—international treaties outlawing biological warfare. The U.S. then shifted its biological research to defensive or countermeasures such as immunization and safety measures.
What is a Biological Weapon?
The traditional definition of a biological weapon as defined by WHO is “either microorganisms like virus, bacteria or fungi, or toxic substances produced by living organisms that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants.”
What Purpose (s) do Biological Weapons Attack Serve?
The United Nations expands the definition and states that biological weapons can be used for political assassinations, the infection of livestock or agricultural produce to cause food shortages and economic loss, the creation of environmental catastrophes, and the introduction of widespread illness, fear and mistrust among the public.
Therefore, a biological agent does not have to spread worldwide and/or cause widespread illness/death to be considered a bioweapon. There are several examples of bioterrorism that come to mind where a biological agent was used to generate widespread fear and panic in the general public while causing very little disease and death.
2001 Anthrax Attacks Ignited Global Terror
One example of a bioweapon attack was the anthrax mailings of 2001 immediately following the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. During October and November of 2001, there were a total of 11 confirmed cases of inhalation anthrax and 11 confirmed cases of cutaneous anthrax. Of the 22 people who got sick with anthrax in 2001, five of them died. Those numbers might not sound huge, but after 9/11 America was on edge.
More and more people began stockpiling ciprofloxacin, the antibiotic used to treat anthrax infection. Officials worried that there wouldn’t be enough doses for those who were actually exposed to anthrax. In one CBS Evening News broadcast, an unidentified New Yorker said, “checking your mail just took on a new meaning.” Homeland security officials called on citizens to buy duct tape, plastic sheeting, and food and water to prepare for a possible chemical or biological attack.
The panic spread beyond those cities in the US that were affected to countries around the globe causing disruptions across Europe, Asia and the Americas. All it took was a little white powder to send people into sheer panic.
An Austrian Airlines jet bound for New Delhi, India, from Vienna was turned back after a passenger found white powder near her seat, said airline officials. The package was sent for testing and the aircraft was carefully searched.
As emergency services around the world responded to panicked calls, governments of several countries were assessing their ability to respond to a bio-crisis.
Could the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic be considered a biological weapons attack?
By definition, SARS-CoV-2 could not by itself be classified as a biological weapons agent given there is to date no evidence that it was released deliberately. However, it did reach the same aim an intentionally released biological agent would; fear and mistrust among the public.
However, a newly emerging infectious agent, which is not well known but is readily available to be collected from natural cases, can become a bioweapon candidate, particularly if its properties make it ideal for biological warfare utilization.
Over the last three years, SARS-CoV-2 was used as a tool to induce unfounded fear that anyone who had it could spread it, even without symptoms, and they would all surely die from it. This caused people to not only fear one another but also to submit to scientifically unfounded prevention and control measures. The constant reminder of the potential of dying caused global widespread panic.
Multiple entities around the globe seized on this and used fear and panic to justify implementation of baseless policies such as lockdowns and mandates, as well as, to implement government control by suppressing civil liberties. People died from lack of treatment, inappropriate treatment protocols, lost their jobs, and many died alone, especially the elderly who were shut in nursing homes. The response to the virus further amplified the fear and widespread panic.
“If you are in a crisis situation you need to think about how to turn that to your advantage. And candidly, if you're not in a crisis situation sometimes the best way to get change done is to create a crisis and then use that to your advantage.”