What are biological weapons? Understand the risks

What are biological weapons?

With the recent start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a topic has been raised between the countries and, consequently, has attracted the attention of all countries in the world: biological weapons.

Despite being a term that is widely used when the subject is wars and types of weapons that are part of this type of conflict, it is rare to see someone who is truly familiar with the subject.

After all, what are called biological weapons?

Biological weapons are weapons that carry different types of organisms, such as viruses, bacteria or toxins.

Unlike other types of better-known weapons – such as atomic bombs, which cause mass physical destruction – the action of biological weapons is very different, but with just as harmful destructive power.

This type of device is intended to cause a wide range of damage, both to the population that is the target of this type of attack and to the animals and vegetation that are part of the ecosystem of the attacked location.

In most cases, the main purpose of these weapons is to cause the spread of diseases that can put the entire local population at risk.

Due to the entire situation involving a moment of conflict, this type of action can easily serve to trigger an epidemic.

And in some cases, this epidemic can end up getting out of control, even resulting in a pandemic.

In addition to having the ability to bring fear to the affected population – causing widespread panic and insecurity – the effects can be even worse.

These types of biological weapons aim to cause illness and even death to members of the opposing side.

In this way, in addition to psychologically destabilizing those who suffer these attacks, the country that carries out this type of attack aims to weaken the enemy side.

What are the risks of biological weapons?

With the constant advancement of the study of sciences such as microbiology and genetic engineering, biological weapons have become increasingly dangerous.

This type of weaponry improvement has made this type of attack increasingly effective.

And this, without a doubt, brings increasing risks not only for the nation or region involved in the conflict that is attacked, but for the entire world.

Even though biological weapons do not cause large explosions or affect the structures of the attacked site – like bombs and missiles – they pose a silent and, at the same time, fatal danger.

The effects of using these types of weapons can be very varied.

And the risks depend largely on which biological agent was used during the attack and what diseases they are designed to cause.

In addition to the more 'isolated' effects that affect the health of the affected population, certain biological weapons may also have the potential to become true pandemics.

And this type of consequence knows no boundaries. In other words, it can be a serious threat and have negative effects on the entire world.

Biological weapons and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Recently, with the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, biological weapons have become a hot topic.

Amid the attacks carried out on Ukraine, Russia accused the rival country of having a biological and chemical weapons development program.

According to these accusations, these laboratories would be operated by the United States, which would be assisting the European country in the development of these weapons against Russia.

Due to these accusations, the UN Security Council (United Nations) met to discuss the alleged existence of this program.

So far, it is not known whether these accusations made by Russia have any basis or whether they are just theories.

Use of biological weapons in history

Although this type of resource is increasingly advanced, the use of this type of biological weapons is not new.

Throughout human history, the use of biological weapons has been recorded on several occasions.

Some of the best known are: Anthrax, Ebola, Smallpox and Botulism.

And this type of resource has already been used – on different scales – in both the First and Second World Wars.

Was the COVID-19 pandemic a kind of biological weapon?

Before becoming a topic because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, biological weapons also received attention in recent years.

And the situation in question associated the use of biological weapons with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred in Wuhan, at the end of 2019.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several theories emerged about the origin of the virus.

And one of these theories was that the origin and proliferation of the virus that causes the new coronavirus had not been accidental, but rather planned.

According to these suspicions, China – the country where the new virus originated – would have created this virus in a laboratory and, subsequently, spread it throughout the world.

During this period, Donald Trump – the former President of the United States – was one of the main proponents of this theory.

But, after several types of investigations were carried out to determine the origin of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the answer came.

The investigation – which was ordered by Joe Biden (current President of the United States) and carried out by the FBI and the CIA – concluded that Sars-CoV-2 was not purposefully developed in a laboratory.

This investigation served to discard once and for all the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of a biological weapons attack.

Conclusion

As you can see, this type of resource during a war is extremely risky.

In addition to being something that intensely affects the affected area, when this type of weapon is used, it poses a real risk to the entire world.

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Ivan March 14, 2022