The Covid-19 pandemic emerges as the most dangerous bio-weapon of the 21st century. It does not discriminate as it affects people beyond the boundaries and from a layman to the Prime Minister. Even the United States of America which is a superpower and other West European nations like Italy, Germany, Japan, Spain, England, and many others are completely defenceless in arresting the spread of this global pandemic. India and other Asian countries are in a far better situation in contraposition to other developed economies. Although Covid-19 has been well controlled in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
There is no misdoubt in calling this COVID-19, a bio-weapon that could lead to bio-terrorism shortly. A biological weapon is also referred to as ‘Germ Warfare’. This pandemic’s effect on the globalized world is not as a conventional warfare attack on the government’s targets or their military powers rather it is a widespread indiscriminate attack on the global citizens and which has disrupted the global economic structures. Also, this outbreak which seems unstoppable has directly impacted millions of lives especially the developing world already coping with challenges of poverty and global disease burden.
The economy is one of the most important key infra-structure of any nation-state and pandemic has sophisticatedly shaken the contemporary world economic order causing huge unemployment, disrupting global supply chains, and bringing economic activities to a standstill. This somehow is establishing the new narratives of the warfare or will bring drastic changes in the conventional warfare techniques in the form of bioterrorism. Biological weapons are gradually being recognized as one of the crucial future threats to international security.
Here, the question being raised is that – Is it China’s deliberate act of bioterrorism via bio-weapon? However, the most credible reports are advocating that this coronavirus was not purposefully manipulated by humans. On the contrary, it is reasonable to think that the virus may have originated from a laboratory, in that case, it will be always remembered as the biggest blunder caused by human intelligence.
When we try to frame a legitimate definition of bioterrorism, we can frame it as “the intentional use of micro-organism, infections, virus or biological substance that may artificially be engineered to cause death, disease or other biological malfunction in humans, animals or any other living organism to influence the conduct of any government or coerce a civilian population at large scale. If We look at the history of biological weapons, it is not 21st century’s concern only but we can trace its evidence from the history of wars where we find that Fatal mustard gas was extensively used during World War I and World War II, both Imperial Japan, and Nazi Germany embarked on a large scale program to develop biological weapons. Similarly, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union established huge biowarfare projects. This involved the development of aerosol sprays that are capable of transporting bacterial and viral agents by plane or ballistic missile. Although the Biological Weapons Convention that has been ratified by 22 nations bans the use of biological weapons, weak verification and compliance issues ensure that there is no credible way to trace the development of biological weapons in any country. Secondly, the Tunisia forces used plague tainted clothes as a weapon in 1785, the siege of la Calle, Third, British officers intentionally tried to transmit smallpox to Native Americans during Pontiac’s rebellion near Fort Pitt in 1763. Fourth, The Japanese used plague as a biological weapon in the Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930’s-40. They Filled bombs with plague-infected fleas and dropped them from airplanes on two of the Chinese cities.
Similarly from these instances, it is not difficult to reach a hypothesis that this COVID-19 may be a manufactured biological weapon at a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. Now China is watching the vulnerability of the western world and other nations. None of the nation-states has been able to successfully develop the antidote for a vaccine for COVID-19 resulting in the pandemic wreaking havoc upon innocent humanity by infecting people in large numbers. The loss of individual lives has been unprecedented with the number of fatalities in the USA surpassing the high death toll of the Vietnam War and similar crisis in other European countries of Italy, Spain, France, and the UK. China may have tried to successfully escape from international surveillance as China is not sharing any of the information to the WHO or the world. A surveillance system should be set up nationwide that should be staffed with clinicians and veterinarians who are trained to identify a bio-weapon attack immediately after such a weapon is unleashed. Advanced countries like the Netherlands and Israel have already initiated such steps. Also WHO has declared it a Pandemic after two weeks of its outbreak due to the nations worldwide delayed in banning international flights and unnecessary migration which leads to the creation of new hotspots in the world like Italy, Iran, Spain, UK. I found the World Health Organisation as a toothless tiger in the context of China as it has not taken any immediate action or inquiry on China this silence over the information-sharing issue. Also, the data of the affected lives and deaths due to this COVID-19 seems forgery, which was provided by China to the international media. Another important reason behind large no of transmission in the USA is their people’s prejudices for the ‘Vaccine Hesitancy’. Vaccine hesitancy means ‘a particular behaviour influenced by several factors including issues of confidence, complacency, and convenience. Vaccines are among the most effective public health interventions against infectious diseases. However, there is evidence in the United States for parents either delaying or refusing recommended childhood vaccination. Exemptions to school immunization laws and use of alternative schedule from those recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the American Academy of Paediatrics cannot only increase the risk of children contracting vaccine-preventable diseases but also increases the risk of infecting others who are either too young to be vaccinated, cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons or did not develop a sufficient immunological response to the vaccine. Whereas in the developing or Asian Countries like in India where people are well aware and concerned about their childhood vaccination as they have kept their children properly vaccinated since birth. This is why Asian nations have comparatively low death rates because of the pandemic.
Another thing which should be brought into account is an exigence of ‘One Health Concept’ which states that it can be effectively implemented for reducing the incidence of emerging zoonotic threats like COVID-19. One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals, and our environment altogether. Around 65% of the contagious diseases affecting humans are zoonotic or animal to man origin transmission. The need of the hour is to scale up such a model across the country and to establish meaningful research collaborations across the world. The developing nations are in the process of promoting this one health concept to create a sustainable disease control system. Health, veterinary, agriculture, and life science research institutions and universities can play a lead role. Further delay may macadamize the way for the emergence of new communicable diseases. Increasing stress on animals due to loss of their habitat would increase the scope of zoonotic diseases and hurt biodiversity.
Almost all the richest economies of the globe are at screeching halt in curbing this pandemic. Now there is a deep need of worldwide nations to change their investment interests according to contemporary situations as there has been a shift in the techniques of warfare i.e. they need to reduce their credence on costly, large, hulking weapon systems. The threat posed by bioterrorism is huge. The major military powers have now included bio-weapons in the category of Weapons of Mass Destruction. There is undoubtedly a necessity for investment in the pharmaceutical industries and medicational health researches with the minimum requirement of soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but with advances in technology and artificial intelligence, there are many areas that could be made manpower free too. We must improve our potentiality to fight in the domain of information warfare. In information warfare, the target is not the military, but the leadership and the level of information exchange, and the enemy aims to weaken national targets or policy implementation procedures by sowing divisions and create incongruities. The world order is realistic there is always a trust issue and the possibility of cheating among nation-states so that they were perpetually in dilemma whether to share proper information or not or the information they are sharing might not affect their sovereignty status internationally. Even if we sanctify our complete energy and resources in agitating the coronavirus, we must not lose sight of the likely delineation of the post-COVID world. Medical and pharmaceutical industries, Military leaders must start planning their strategies and force structures to meet new challenges coming in the post-COVID period. This COVID-19 is affecting human lives and economies abruptly if way says that it is a human- the manufactured weapon of mass destruction then there is no sign of doubting in it. We call it ‘a poor man of the nuclear bomb’, as its name indicates it is relatively cheaper than the other conventional weapons of war but the loss is calamitous to the global world. Also, the effects of the traditional techniques and the weapons of the warfare are clear and immediate which can be used both technically and strategically on the battlefield. This intensified outbreak of a pandemic, humans have underestimated the treacherous menace poised by this biological weapon to humanity. The absence of the bio-defence and the time log in finding the treatment or the vaccine enables the invisible enemy to inflict the high despondency and the mortality.
If we look at a way forward we find that the response to this kind of emerging unexpected biological threat, all the research centers, and pharmaceutical industries, health structures should be re-proposed. So that they can identify their loopholes or the shortcomings and transform themselves into a seamless infrastructure for quick and reliable testing with the telescoped time frame. After seeing the results, the effects of the pandemic. The Indian Government must be all set, every step of the way to fight bioterrorism because a country that is able and organized in the face of adversity has already won half the battle. A national mission mode program on mitigation of bio-threats should be launched with an inter-ministerial steering committee and overall coordination under the national security advisor because they can impact the nation’s comprehensive national security. This bio-attack in the form of pandemic lies under the unrestricted nature of warfare. It must shape our preparedness strategies for fending off and responding to biological attacks from both the pugnacious state and the bio-terrorist prompts agitate in the present military doctrine and the security architectures both domestically and internationally. Shortly there will be the most intensified of the USA and China. This can be termed as the ‘New Cold War’ because the globalized world is moving towards the ‘Bi-Polar world’ again. This could be cold war 1.5 because it will neither completely Pax-China nor Pax-America. There will be Asia’s hegemony with the new norms in the world and there will be rolling back of globalization from the contemporary world order.
References:
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