Biological Warfare Today. Should You Be Worried?
Well, shouldn't you always be worried about something?
2018 there was 182 states in the world that signed the "Biological Weapons Convension" (BWC). The terms of BWC is "...using biological weapons in warfare and from developing, testing, producing, stockpiling, or deploying them".
But the other ten states in the world could sure be a threat. Those are: Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan and Tuvalu.
And of course the terrorists don't follow rules.
What is a biological weapon?
A biological weapon are a device made to do harm against humans, animals or plants, using bacteria, rickettsiae, viruses, fungi, toxins or any other biological agent. Pesticide and herbicide are examples of biological weapon against threats in farming environment. But in war, they aren't as used, but not unknown either. In history, biological weapon in war had taken more life than regular infantry.
Biological weapons are, like nuclear and chemical weapons, classified as "weapons of mass destruction". But due to the difficulty to control the spread of a mass pandemic, and the fact that a biological are very unethical*, must of the worlds country had agreed to ban the entire weapon-class.
The ban prohibits members of using biological weapons in warfare and from developing, testing, producing, stockpiling, or deploying them.
* - It's unethical because, instead of taking down important infrastructure plus some casualty as a regular bomb does, a biological weapon targets living matter and case mass-death, leaves infrastructures and equipment untouched.
Different agents
The type of biological weapon depends on which agent that is used to cause the damage.
- Bacteria - A living single-cell organism that is used to cause diseases or other effects on humans, animals or plants. Pandemics, rot, spoil food...
- Rickettsiae - Microorganisms that works like a bacteria, but are much smaller. A rickettsia takes over another cell and reproduce and work inside them.
- Viruses - Also a microorganism that works inside other cells, but these targets creatures with blood. They infect the blood and hijack the white blood-cells to reproduce them instead of the antibodies towards them.
- Fungi - Small parasitic mushrooms that targets plants. They mainly spoils food and weakens wood-structure, but some fungi can be toxic and do harm to living creature.
- Toxins - Poisons extracted from venomous animals and plants that is reproduced in industrial laboratories.
Which is the best to use depends on the situation and the target. Should the agent be contagious? Should it be lethal or just causing sickness? How stable should the agent be...
Defense against
Most biological weapon agents are intended to be used as aerosols (particles in the air) and make the target sick. With that in mind, there is some things you can do to protect yourself if you see it coming.
- Vaccine - Don't be such an r/antivaxxer and take that dang shot. A biological weapon are created to make you sick, and a vaccine is created to boost your immune system to take that crap down.
- Gas-mask - If you rock a gas-mask, you breath filtered air, free from dust, gas and hazardous biological agents.
- Protective wear - Wear a cover-all to protect the dangerous particle from touching your skin and enter thru wounds.
- Shelter - Hang in an indoor area with a good ventilation system that filter out all that pesky particles. Bring your friends and a deck of cards and you will get entertained for hours.
Conclusion
No, I don't think you should be worried. Sure, there are ten countries that look for biological weapon and tries to make them cheaper than nukes, and there is ISIS and others that might want to steal such weapon.
But if you think about this. If a biological warhead is about to be rigged to a launcher, there is all the other country that had agreed to ban those. And among those are USA, Russia and North Korea that really wishes for an opportunity to flex with their nuclear warheads. If, say Israel, launches a biological weapon, they will have som many pointers directed towards them that it will be hard to even wipe the seat of the forehead.
Remember the cold war? Everybody and their mothers made nuclear weapons. But none was launched because everybody was afraid that they would have the double sent back.
