Anyone who has credible expertise in biological weaponry/anything along those lines, could you answer the following questions?

Question

1. What do you think of the current state of the world and it's preparedness to face a biological attack, especially after COVID-19?

2. In light of the Geneva protocol, why are some countries still developing biological weapons?

Thank you!

Answer 1

What do you think of the current state of the world and it's preparedness to face a biological attack, especially after COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted both strengths and weaknesses in the world's preparedness to face a biological attack. On one hand, the pandemic demonstrated the speed at which scientific research and collaboration can occur in response to a global health crisis. Multiple vaccines were developed and approved for emergency use within a remarkably short time frame.

Furthermore, the pandemic has led to increased investments in public health infrastructure, surveillance systems, and the development of robust testing capabilities in many countries. This enhanced preparedness can potentially benefit the world's ability to respond to future biological threats.

However, there are still areas that need improvement. The initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic was marred by challenges such as delays in recognizing the severity of the threat, inadequate coordination and communication between countries, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies, and difficulties in implementing effective containment measures.

Additionally, the rapid spread of COVID-19 underscored the vulnerability of global supply chains and the need for more resilient systems to ensure the availability of essential medical resources during a crisis.

Addressing these weaknesses requires ongoing efforts to strengthen global health systems, invest in research and development, enhance international cooperation, and improve coordination among different sectors, including healthcare, government agencies, and scientific communities.

2. In light of the Geneva Protocol, why are some countries still developing biological weapons?

The Geneva Protocol, also known as the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, is an international treaty that prohibits the use of biological and chemical weapons. It was first adopted in 1925 and has since been ratified by a large number of countries.

While the Geneva Protocol bans the use of biological weapons, it does not explicitly prohibit their development, production, or stockpiling. This creates a legal loophole that some countries may exploit to pursue activities related to biological weapons.

There are several reasons why some countries may still be engaged in the development of biological weapons despite the Geneva Protocol:

1. National security concerns: Some countries may perceive biological weapons as a means to safeguard their national security or as a deterrent against potential adversaries. They may argue that having a biological weapons program can provide leverage in conflicts or act as a deterrent against aggression.
2. Dual-use nature of biological research: Many advances in biology, medicine, and biotechnology have dual-use applications, meaning they can be used for both peaceful and military purposes. Some countries may engage in legitimate scientific research that has both civilian and military applications, blurring the line between defensive measures and offensive capabilities.
3. Lack of effective enforcement: While the Geneva Protocol is an important international agreement, its enforcement mechanisms are limited. The absence of strong enforcement mechanisms and international inspections makes it challenging to detect and deter violations effectively. This can create an environment in which some countries feel they can develop biological weapons covertly without facing significant consequences.
4. Strategic imbalances and concerns: In cases where countries perceive a strategic imbalance, such as a perceived technological advantage by potential adversaries, they may pursue biological weapons as a means to level the playing field or gain a competitive edge.
5. Historical factors and legacy programs: Some countries may have inherited biological weapons programs from past conflicts or regimes. These programs may continue to exist or be secretly pursued, even if the current government publicly disavows their existence.

Answer 2

Very few national accepted the Geneva Protocol. World peace is a dream of the mid-20th century when the most people on earth had read the most factual newspapers and thoughtful books and took them seriously because information was still monitored by news agencies, universities, and governments. And the entertainment available was really very, very little until 1990s. Today, we humans view ourselves as far more able than we are to solve even most daily problems. Instead, those of us who can, pay someone else to fix them. Moreover, humans appear always to have had a fundamental, flaw in our thinking patterns because fulfilling our animal instincts is usually more pleasurable more quickly than any long term, real solutions. We simply dislike compromise, cooperation, and the patience they take to achieve real long-term solutions and success. Instead, we prefer to believe that we do not need to solve looming problems telling ourselves that they are not yet important or urgent. We avoid anything that will cost us effort and money now, or simply interfere with our enjoyment of the present. Animals do that, too. For instance, children resist quite a bit in their educations because they want only eat well and have fun. Adults resist planning for the future because they want only to solve their problem in the present so that they have free time to enjoy life. Mature adults feel they have so many responsibilities that they cannot take the time needed to research and learn thoroughly, and many of them -- because they had fun in childhood and a lot of free time in their young adulthood -- do not know how do it well anyway. No matter how many reasons our rational minds tell us we should take care of a looming problem now, our irrational minds can come up with as many, often more persuasive reasons why we should "wait and see."

The experts hired by well-run democratic governments have the skills to prepare for biological warfare, but many of our citizens and resident foreign nationals resist paying the federal and state taxes that would pay for the vast number of experts it would take to thoroughly prepare for what may be an inevitability, but may not. After all, nearly all the major nations now have nuclear weapons, and every day one of them threatens to use it. Given a deeply emotional circumstance, one will be enough to unleash the end of our world as we know it. That world of daily, international fear was created by governments for the first time in my parents' adulthood and my lifetime, but warlords have been warlords terrifying commoners for millennia. Quite certainly, were we not so afraid of pain, death, and mutation, and the efforts of those who have educated us about those terrors, nuclear war would have broken out already.

Biological weapons are very similar to nuclear weapons in that way; however, they are even far less controllable before and after an attack. For that reason, unless the national leaders feel free to destroy their own people and have already vaccinated the valuable or have a powerful cure, they are unlikely to develop and use biological weapons -- unless a massive war has already broken out. (If history teaches anything, it is that men lose their humanity in the midst of heated competitions and most greatly during wars.) If war does begin, however, at this point chemical and nuclear weapons will already be available, more efficient, more affordable, and less likely to backfire than would new biological weapons. The real risk is that political leaders whose faction or small, bordering nation-state has been in continuous conflict with its neighbor might, in a rage, commission or purchase from mercenary providers a much more virulent biological weapon than either the buyer or seller imagines -- because nature keeps moving forward whether or not we are paying attention. That character flaw? It's arrogance. We talk a big game to ourselves, think we're remarkable advanced beyond the animals, but only a small percentage of us have read enough, learned enough, or care enough about ourselves and others to have become truly advanced in any field, and when we are, it's usually just one -- we are now a world of specialists, many of whom now have too little time to remind themselves of our shared humanity or care about the others' suffering because -- we tell ourselves -- we, personally, can do nothing about it. That is a lie we tell ourselves to comfort ourselves in the face of our fears -- whether we are five years old or old enough to be facing death. Some of us are still growing, however, and humankind may be evolving, too. It may even be that many people now viewed as overachievers or out of step will be much better suited for the world in the future.