Biological weapons a serious issue for the modern world

Biological and chemical weapons- The silent killer of humanity 

In

21st century what is the biggest danger to human beings? Is that a tsunami, earthquake, riot or a nuclear war? I'll say these are dangerous but not among the biggest threats for humanity. In today's world the biggest threats are Biological and Chemical weapons. But some individuals will not agree with that is said above they will say nuclear weapons are more dangerous because they destroy infrastructures along with human lifes but I will say if people die, what will they do by saving infrastructures. Both are weapons of mass destruction I agree with that but Biological weapons cause more destruction.

Biological weapons cause more destruction than Nuclear weapons 

Chemical and biological weapons are cheap and easy to make, and easy to deliver than nuclear weapons. The biological weapon is much dangerous because it spreads with much higher pace and kills thousands of people and who spread that virus or chemical gas no one knows about it.

Signing of the Geneva Conventions

First let me tell you that Chemical and Biological weapons are illegal under international law. After the horrific experiences of soldiers in WW1 Geneva Protocol in 1929 banned the use of biological weapons. The Geneva conventions prohibited their use, but not their production or storage.

A large amount of VX nerve agent stored

The long range effects of biological weapons being carrier from generation to generation through DNA, causing birth defects, tumors, new diseases, and cancers etc. are limitless. The world learned in World War 1 seeing the soldiers agony after being assaulted with Mustard gas. Viruses and chemicals once set loose into the environment can have many unintentional effects, can migrate, transform, change form, affect unintended, innocent people, and cause life - changing damages that can escalate beyond humans ability to control or repair. There is no more dangerous substance on the earth, than one which, when set lose, continues to destroy innocent lives for generations.

Mustard  gas attack on soldiers in WW1

Biological Weapons have much more potential to kill than nuclear weapons and it is hard to control, it is possible that if the wrong symptoms were produced in that virus (ie. A disease that is not visible until in the final phase, which is always lethal, yet was inactive for long enough that someone infected could be in another country by the time it's active) can backfire and kill their own people.

Biological weapons 

Biological weapons are bad because it can persist, propagate and spread through a population by its own. The biggest advantage of Biological weapons over Nukes that they are (if done correctly) virtually impossible to notice until it kills millions, one could virtually spread a canister (box) filled with viruses (it would be a suicidal mission unless it was set to timed release). It designed in such a way that they remain dormant until it being exposed to extreme cold and humidity namely the winter season, so until then it enters and infects thousands and keeps on spreading and as the winter starts boom people start to drop dead so if done correctly it can reach thousands and can wipe them out without anyone knowing how it was done or who did it. There are some germs sitting in locked freezers that would cause people to die very quickly. There wouldn't be time to figure them out because death would claim almost everyone that came in contact with them.

Biological and chemical weapons should be in safe hands

The trouble is: once you let the germs out of the test tube, you can't get them back into it. Ditto on the nuclear bomb once you let the nuke go off, you have a huge, obvious crater, and aside from the thermal effects (the blastwave mostly) you have to worry about radiation, you'll live with the radiation forever. And it won't stay in the same place either. The spread of which can be changed by weather patterns. Wind and water will carry it out in all directions. But once you know about the radiation, you can detect and deal with it in a fairly straightforward manner. Radiation behaves a certain (well understood, generally predictable) way even if the meteorology does not affect it.

But other side Biological weapons are self - replicating. It means when you prepare some special virus and spread it across the small group of people it can continue spreading up to size of global pandemic of the whole world. Impact of biological weapons is today hardly predictable - how the virus will be spreading.

Both are weapons of mass destruction 

Biological weapons can be used also against some species of plants and animals and to destroy food sources of enemy. Today biological weapons don't differ between foes and friends and pandemic can kill also their own people. New generation of biological weapons can be genome specific.

Biological weapons can be made easily in the modern labs

Biological weapons have theoretical capability to wipe out pretty much the entire population of the world. Not the old Biological weapons, but the new ones, that are probably created somewhere deep underground, using modern DNA splicing technologies. Viruses created using gene - modifications can be so deadly that our immune system has no response to them whatsever. If the virus is designed to be airborne and have long incubation period with no symptoms (months maybe) it can spread throughout the entire population of the world before it finally turns nasty and kills with near 100% efficiency. Creating such viruses is extremely difficult, but gene modification is becoming more common with CRISP(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and better techniques in near future), that soon a single crazy university student might create something like that.

Biological weapons production increased 

History-

In back history many pandemics occurred that killed thousands of human beings time to time. It came naturally but showed us how dangerous they are for our humanity. The most dangerous epidemic was plague in human history it destroyed thousands of communities in different parts of the world. Plague returned by different names again and again.

Thousands of people lost their life due to Plague  

Some more epidemics which effected the humans are - The Black death (1346–1353), Spanish flu (1918–1919), AIDS (1981– present day), Zika virus (2015– present day), West African Ebola virus (2014– 2016), H1N1 Swine flu (2009-2010), Polio, Malaria, Philadelphia yellow fever (1793) and how we can forget about the most deadliest virus of present time the Coronavirus which has kept the whole world in trouble more than 185 countries are in crisis. About half a million people have lost their

life.

Must see: Impact of Coronavirus on our environment

Humans have a long history of invisible enemies 

Bhopal gas tragedy (caused on 2nd December 1984) is one of the biggest example to show how chemicals have a disastrous effect on human life, its effect can still be seen on the coming generations.

Over 15,000 people were killed when nearly 42 tonnes of toxic gas, Methyl Iso Cyanate (MIC) leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) factory.

Once you release that biological or chemical weapon be it a virus or germ or spore or a poisonous gas you have lost control of it.
The British released Anthrax Spores on the Island of Gruinard During the World War 2 to see how it work as a weapon. That island was contaminated for 50 years and was supposed to be disinfected in the 1990s. There is no way I would go and land on that particular island as just one single spore in my lungs would be a death sentence without immediate medical attention.

Gruinard island contaminated due to Anthrax spore

In sixteenth century- 

The germs of horrific diseases were deliberately introduced into American continent by the Europeans.These diseases like smallpox that reached there with Spanish soldiers and officers helped in the spread and strengthening of colonialism in American countries. Due to being isolated from the world for 2 million years, the body of the American people did not have the disease-resistant ability to avoid these terrible diseases coming from Europe. As a result, smallpox proved to be the antidote at this new location. A smallpox-like epidemic completely ended many communities across the American countries. Where the Europeans did not reach, people also started falling into it. This put an end to the tribals of the entire colony. In this way the path of smallpox intruders conquered. The guns could also be used against the attackers by buying or snatching them, but in the case of diseases like smallpox it could not be done because the attackers had a way of dealing with it and their body had developed resistance to that.

Devastation caused by Spanish chicken pox in America

Let loose a genetically-modified, drug-resistant strain of smallpox over a big enough area, especially if it's been modified to lay dormant for weeks, and theoretically you can infect everyone on the planet inside a month, and have 75% of them dead inside a year. Frankly think about it that how dangerous a terror organization with such a weapon can destroy a area or a nation within a few months without knowing anyone.

Bioterrorism 

Conclusion-

In conclusion, while Biological and Chemical weapons has more potential, it has more risk of backfiring than a nuclear weapon. In the near future, we need much more international control of advanced labs and all GMO(genetically modified organism) experiments, because also of new generation of suicide skilled terrorists. It is not a difficult concept, but it has been hard to prove the case until now. But COVID-19 make it all clear that we should not compromise with this types of nonsense human acts to save humanity and if anyone is found guilty for this, should be punished as per international laws.

Must see post: After COVID-19 pandemic we will get to see a new world 

International court of justice(ICJ), The Hague,Netherland 

(Author's own thoughts)

Thanks for reading.