Biological Warfare is use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Imagine being locked in your home, with panic in your eyes and fear in your heart, of Death knocking at your Door. Seems too farfetched? Or has it become Reality for us today?
While the world is still trying to survive the current Pandemic, the threat of another Pandemic looms over our heads. The Earth is a World full of Viruses, found and yet to be found and they may be deadly for us Humans as well as the life around us. For better understanding of how Viruses affect Animals as well as Humans, we need to understand what a Virus is.
Infectious agent of small size and simple composition that can multiply only in living cells of animals, plants, or bacteria.
Britannica Encyclopedia
The name is from a Latin word meaning “slimy liquid” or “poison.”
The use or rather the abuse of such agents by Humans has been recorded since the beginning of Civilization. Early Humans used dead cadavers of sick or diseased people and left them in the settlements of their rival groups. After Second World War ended, multiple Experiments on Biological Warfare conducted by Hitler, came to light, which resulted in the research being divided by the United States and the Soviet Union, who launched their own bio weapons programs, which included the development of bacterial and viral agents to destroy enemy states.
The most problematic experiment is perhaps the secret program run by Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731 during the Second World War, based at Pingfan in Manchuria and commanded by Lieutenant General Shirō Ishii. This unit did research on Biological Warfare, conducted often fatal human experiments on prisoners, and produced biological weapons for combat.
Since then, Governments all over the world have begun experimenting on such agents capable of killing millions in a span of few weeks or even days.
Fortunately, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons has been signed by 183 states as dated until 2019. The Convention was supplementary to the 1925 Geneva Protocol. The Geneva Protocol prohibits use but not possession or development of chemical and biological weapons. Yet, the fear of such a toxic agent being released by a rival state is still a major concern amongst World Leaders.
The recent outbreak of the COVID –19 (Novel Corona) Virus, has caused tremendous loss of Life and caused various institutions around the world to collapse. While researchers consider it as a Natural mutation of the SARS – CoV, many allege that the Virus has been a creation of the Chinese state and that they could not control its outbreak.
The outbreak has reignited the debate of whether Humans can survive such a large scale pandemic and if the Virus is truly bred in a Laboratory. The major lesson to be learnt through this Pandemic is how Biological Warfare can disrupt the course of Human life and leave many lives dead in its wake. The only manner in which control of state sanctioned testing of Bio Hazards can happen is by strengthening the Treaty and imposing multiple financial and trade sanctions on the Offensive Nation.
Thus, the future of Warfare is not Guns and Missiles but just a small drop of a Virus strain, and the current Pandemic is just a glimpse of a much terrifying future.
