The coronavirus may not have been an act of biological war orchestrated by a terrorist organization -- but that doesn’t mean the United States isn’t concerned about one.
The “devastation” of COVID-19 is “clear,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Wednesday.
“So could that virus or any other virus or other biological type systems be deployed for nefarious purposes by intent? Yes, it could. And yes, it is a concern,” Milley said.
Should a nation do so, Milley explained, it would be “a very, very drastic on the move” and a “complete and utter act of war” which would be faced with a “devastating response” from the United States.
What is far more likely to happen and is of “great concern,” however, is terrorist organizations employing the same type of weaponry.
“It’s actually not all that difficult to imagine -- biological weapons being developed and then deployed by organizations that would in fact have no compunction whatsoever about deploying those sorts of weapons and causing the level of destruction that they've done,” Milley said. “We know that some organizations, in fact, are trying to look at things like that.”
“It's something that we need to be on guard against,” Milley added.
Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic include a better understanding of the need for personal protective equipment stockpiles and rapid deployment medical units.
But biological warfare threats are, of course, not new.
As early as 600 BC, biological agents have been used as weapons -- albeit those weapons back then mostly included corpses and animal carcasses. In the 1490s, the Spanish mixed the blood of leprosy patients into wine consumed by their enemies. In the 1700s, the British distributed blankets from smallpox patients to Native Americans. And during the Civil War, Confederate soldiers sold clothing from yellow fever and smallpox patients to Union troops.
More recently, during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, it was suspected that Iraq operated a biological weapons program. The Iraqi program allegedly researched agents such as rotavirus, camelpox virus, botulinum toxins, and an anticrop agent (wheat cover rust). It also tested delivery systems including aerial spray tanks and drone aircraft.
So -- with centuries and centuries of biological warfare behind us -- is the United States prepared for a biological attack?
In short, studies and reports have declared America ill-prepared for a bioterrorism attack -- and now, as the U.S. struggles against COVID-19, our enemies may know just how ill-prepared.
The United States created a large-scale infectious disease plan following the H1N1 epidemic in 2009, but it’s seeing the gaps in that plan as it has been executed against COVID-19. Luckily, as Milley said, the U.S. is learning lessons from the coronavirus -- hopefully, lessons that will leave the U.S. more prepared in the future.
