The Rise of Biological Warfare and Bioterrorism

With the spread of coronavirus in the global community, several countries are calling it as biological warfare used by china especially the USA carrying out investigations on the origin of China, Mr. Donald Trump referring to the coronavirus as the Chinese virus and accusing china of what is called bioterrorism but what is bioterrorism is in the first place? This article aims to explore the rise of bioterrorism in the world.

The CDC defines bioterrorism as:

“A biological attack, or bioterrorism, is the intentional release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs that can sicken or kill people, livestock, or crops. Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax, is one of the most likely agents to be used in a biological attack.[1]”

According to a report of the United States Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism state that bioterrorism is the “most likely WMD threat to the world.”[2]

Bioterrorism has its roots and use from the 600 BC where infectious diseases were recognized for their potential impact on people and armies. Polluting water and other sources were a common strategy use all over the world.

Military leaders all across the world understood that victims of infectious diseases can be very well be use as weapons. [3]

During the 14^th-century plague pandemic, which killed 25 million Europeans in the 14^th century. Many such incidents in the 14^th and 15^th centuries indicate the use of various poisons and diseases during the war for example bodies of dead soldiers were throw into the camps of the enemy in Karolstein in 1422. A similar war tactic was used during the battle of Sweden troops and Russian troops where the remains and dead bodies of plague victims were thrown into enemy camps [4].

Use of Biological warfare in World War I and failure of the Geneva Protocol, 1925 

There exists substantial evidence proving that Germany had an ambitious biological warfare program during world war 1 where the program featured covert operations. Reports were circulated claiming attempts by German to ship intoxicate cattle inject with disease-producing Bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) and Pseudomonas to the USA and other countries. Allegations were put on Germany; that the same agents were to infect Romanian sheep. That were export to Russia and attempting to spread Cholera in Italy, plague, and Russia. And biological bombs being drop on British provinces.

In response to the horrors of chemical and Biological warfare, the Geneva Protocol was sign in June 1925 by 108 countries. However, the Geneva convention failed to give any norms that countries had to comply with which made it practically useless. Several countries started the production and testing of biological weapons. The USA did not ratify the Geneva protocol till 1975. After the failure of the league of nations and the start of world war 2 the Geneva protocol did not have any relevance.

World War II

Japan conducted research and research from approximately 1932 and did not stop until the end of the second world war. The Japanese program consisted of more than 150 buildings in Pingfan, 5 satellite camps, and a staff of more than 3000 scientists. Organisms and diseases of interest to the Japanese program were B. anthracis, Neisseria meningitides, Vibrio cholera, Shigella spp, and Yersiniapestis. More than 10,000 prisoners are believe to have died. As a result of experimental infection during the Japanese program between 1932 and 1945. At least 3000 of these victims were prisoners of war, including Korean, Chinese, Mongolian, Soviet, American, British, and Australian soldiers. [5]

In the USA the program of biological warfare grew at a fast pace from 1942 where 5000 bombs with B. anthracis spores were produced. [6]

Allegation of biological war being used even after the war was put on countries where:

• The Eastern European press stated that Great Britain had used biological weapons in Oman in 1957.
• The Chinese alleged that the USA caused a cholera epidemic in Hong Kong in 1961.
• In July 1964, the Soviet newspaper Pravda asserted that the US Military Commission in Columbia and Colombian troops had used biological agents against peasants in Colombia and Bolivia.
• In 1969, Egypt accused the “imperialistic aggressors” of using biological weapons in the Middle East, specifically causing an epidemic of cholera in Iraq in 1966.[7]

Biological Weapon Convention

We can see from above that the Geneva protocol to limit the use of biological weapons was a complete failure. In July 1969 the British submitted to the UN committee for disarmament. Outlining the need to prohibit the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons. The proposal also had measures for control and inspection as well as guidelines to be follow if there was a breach and hence in 1972  the convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction,” as the BWC, develop. “This treaty prohibits the development, production, and stockpiling of pathogens or toxins in “quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes[8]”.

Further under the BWC the development of the delivery system and transportation of such weapons are prohibit. Further it required nations to destroy stockpiled biological weapons within 9 months of ratification. This agreement was ratified by 103 countries and came into effect in March 1975. Signatories to the BWC are require to submit the following information to the UN on an annual basis: facilities where biological defence research is being conduct, scientific conferences. That are held at specify facilities, exchange of scientists or information, and disease outbreaks.

Bioterrorism and Biowarfare after the Biological Weapon Convention

During the 1970s, biological weapons were for covert assassinations. In 1978 a Bulgarian exile name Georgi Markov was attack and kill in London, England. This assassination later became known as the “umbrella killing,” because the weapon used was a device disguised as an umbrella[9].

At the end of the Persian Gulf War in August 1991, the first UN inspection of Iraq’s biological warfare capabilities is carry out. Representatives of the Iraqi government announced to representatives from the UN Special Commissions Team 7 that Iraq had researched the offensive use of B. anthracis, botulinum toxins, and Clostridium perfringens.[10]

 In the mid-1990s, large amounts of botulinum toxin were found in a laboratory in a safe house of the Red Army Faction in Paris, France. The toxin was never used. The threat of Bioterrorism reappeared on March 18^th when Aum Shinrikyo attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin gas. Allegedly the group had attempted three unsuccessful arracks on Japan using anthrax and botulinum toxin.[11]

Is Coronavirus Bioterrorism?

Let us now evaluate if the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is the Chinese version of Bioterrorism Now if we go by the definition of Bioterrorism it is an intentional release. Let us see facts and evaluate was the spread of Coronavirus intentionally done by the Chinese government.

Doctors in Wuhan knew in December that the coronavirus was capable of human-to-human transmission because medical workers were getting sick as late as Jan. 15, the head of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention declared on state television that “the risk of human-to-human transmission is low.” On Jan. 18, weeks after President Xi Jinping had taken charge of the response, authorities allowed a Lunar New Year banquet to go forward in Wuhan where tens of thousands of families shared food — and then let millions travel out of Wuhan, allowing the disease to spread across the world.

It was not until Jan. 23 that the Chinese government enacted a quarantine in Wuhan and then they issue and then they issue a  public apology to Dr li Wenilang who had warned about the potential of a coronavirus outbreak.  where the U.S secretary of state Mike Pompeo said: “enormous evidence” showed the new coronavirus originated in a lab in China, a and the Chinese government [12]in its various statements refused these allegations the  Chinese foreign ministry issued a 30-page, 11,000-word article and has said the USA was informed on 4^th January itself [13]. Now, who to trust and who not to is a question to be asked but if the Chinese government had imposed the lockdown on time then the spread and outbreak could have largely been restricted.

Conclusion

The statement by the United States Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism that bioterrorism is the “most likely WMD threat to the world.”^[14] It is true because in such cases there is no winner or loser there is just destruction whether it be Hiroshima and Nagasaki or other nuclear blasts and explosions.  The effect will and continues to be disastrous, one needs to remember that science is and should be used for the benefit of humanity and not for destroying humanity but if this very science falls in the wrong hands it can be disastrous.

Take the example of coronavirus to leave aside the possibility of it being a bioterrorist activity even if the spread of Coronavirus is non-deliberate it has killed over 4 lakh people globally at the time when I am writing this article. Do not know how many more deaths we the world needs to see, do not know whether things will be ever normal again. There is unemployment globally, people are dying of hunger and poverty. The IMF predicts that the global economy will shrink by a total of 3%  The IMF described the global decline as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said the crisis could knock $9 trillion (£7.2 trillion) off global GDP over the next two years. [15]Mind you that these are just estimates of how bad the real situation will turn out no one knows.

Now just imagine a situation where countries do it deliberately, I can not even imagine what will happen and to make things worse UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in April that he sees a growing danger of bioterrorism attacks that aim to create a pandemic similar to that of the coronavirus.[16] We as the global community need to do our bit and ensure that the use and stockpiling of Bioweapons are stopped. So that everyone in the world has a right to live in certainty. 

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References:

[1] Cdc.gov. 2020. Bioterrorism | Anthrax | CDC. [online] Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/bioterrorism/index.html  [Accessed 7^th June 2020]

[2] Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, January 2010, p.6 <www.pharmathene.com/WMD_Report_Card.pdf

[3]  Eitzen EM, Jr, Takafuji

 ET. Historical overview of biological warfare. In: Sidell FR, Takafuji ET, Franz DR, editors. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General, Borden Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center; 1997. pp. 415–423. Available at http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/cwbw/default_index.htm; accessed June 7^th 2020

[4] Riedel, S. (2004, October). Biological warfare and bioterrorism: A historical review. Retrieved June 08, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200679/

[5] Harris SH. Factories of Death. New York: Routledge; 1994.

[6] Biological warfare. A historical perspective.Christopher GW, Cieslak TJ, Pavlin JA, Eitzen EM JrJAMA. 1997 Aug 6; 278(5):412-7.

[7]  Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Vol I: The Rise of CB Weapons. New York: Humanities Press; 1971

[8] Supra in 7^th citation

[9] US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases. Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook. 4th ed. Frederick, MD: Fort Detrick; 2001.

[10] Iraq’s biological weapons. The past as future? Zilinskas RA JAMA. 1997 Aug 6; 278(5):418-24.

[11]  The biological warfare threats. In: Sidell FR, Takafuji ET, Franz DR, editors. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General, Borden Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center; 1997. pp. 451–466. Available at http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/cwbw/default_index.htm; accessed June 7^th 2020

[12] Www.ETHealthworld.com. (2020, May 04). ‘Enormous evidence’ that coronavirus came from China lab: US – ET Health World. Retrieved June 08, 2020, from https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/enormous-evidence-that-coronavirus-came-from-china-lab-us/75525118

[13] Tian, Y. (2020, May 11). China refutes 24 ‘lies’ by U.S. politicians over coronavirus. Retrieved June 08, 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-usa/china-refutes-24-lies-by-u-s-politicians-over-coronavirus-idUSKBN22M0DV?utm_campaign=fullarticle

[14] Supra in second citation

[15] Chan, S. P. (2020, April 14). Coronavirus: ‘World faces worst recession since Great Depression’. Retrieved June 7^th, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52273988

[16] Deutsche Welle. (n.d.). Coronavirus: Experts warn of bioterrorism after pandemic: DW: 25.05.2020. Retrieved June 08, 2020, from https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-experts-warn-of-bioterrorism-after-pandemic/a-53554902