Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, massive strides have been made in our understanding of the biological world and the ways in which we can tweak it to our own benefit. With the advent of the CRISPR - Cas 9 technology, nothing seems impossible. Just as the twentieth century was the “century of physics and chemistry”, the twenty-first century is emerging as the “century of biology”. With biotechnology changing everything about the way we live, a time when we would’ve super soldiers like Captain America or the Winter Soldier doesn’t seem far.
Advances in molecular biology and genetic engineering have opened the way for a potential Pandora’s Box scenario, in which the unforeseen proliferation of bioweapons could affect organisms at a global level.
However, if used maliciously or negligently, it can destroy all human life. Advanced biotechnology, most importantly, genetically engineered pathogens such as virus and bacteria could become a lucrative choice for use as biowarfare agents. Advances in molecular biology and genetic engineering have opened the way for a potential Pandora’s Box scenario, in which the unforeseen proliferation of bioweapons could affect organisms at a global level. Especially since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year and with the US President Joe Biden ordering an investigation on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2, the world has suddenly been awoken to the destructive potential of a pandemic. It has painted a vivid picture of what a biological war could look like while exposing the weaknesses of the global health and biosecurity system and illuminating our ill-preparedness for a bio-war.
Microscopic pathogens emerge as unique tools that could wreak havoc without the perpetrator suffering the financial and spatial investments that normal large scale weaponry and armaments require. As Dr. Gregor Hoffman in Alistair MacLean’s Satan Bug said, “It’s an ideal weapon as it only destroys people. It’s a virus – airborne, indestructible, self-perpetuating, multiplying beyond our calculations – and all life will cease to exist everywhere. Nothing can stop the Satan Bug”.
Biological warfare is as old as civilization. In 300 BC, the Greeks, Romans and Persians contaminated their enemies’ water supply with dead animal carcasses. In 400 BC, the Scythian archers infected their arrows by dipping them in decomposed bodies. In the 14th century AD, the Tartar forces catapulted plague-infected corpses in the siege of Kaffa. Again in 1710, the Russians employed the same tactics of catapulting plague-infected cadavers against Swedish forces. During the French-Indian War in the 18th century AD, British forces provided blankets contaminated with smallpox to the Native Americans. However, using genetic engineering, we have created weapons which are a million times more effective than their natural counterparts.
In times like these, when the world is already battling COVID-19, it becomes very important that we develop a sound strategy to keep bio-wars in the realm of science fiction. Efforts to manage the risks should be multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral and coordinated. What we need is to develop awareness in the scientific community to keep another similar pandemic at bay. In the hope that future pandemics happen only in movies which we can all watch together in a crowded movie theatre…
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