Covid-19, biological weapons and the social collapse

Rabi Chandoor

The world is in crisis. With industries closed, markets deserted, vehicles plummeted and almost every activity on halt, the planet Earth is trying to take some rest. Covid-19 has hit the world quite hard. The scenario is grim as the world has not an optimum solution to the pandemic. Since, 11 March, when Covid-19 was declared as a pandemic, multiple myths and theories revolved. Both the USA and China initiated the blame game, accusing each other of deliberately spreading the virus to stall the economic growth. Some said that the virus accidentally erupted from a Chinese lab in Wuhan when the scientists were performing experiments in the lab. But the most robust theory which has been believed by WHO and many scientists is that the virus has spread from the wet market of Wuhan. To dispel the myth that COVID-19 is a biological weapon, one must search through the annals of history.

A brief history of biological weapons:

Biological weapons came on the scene during WW-II, when USA developed it for the first time but never used it. Later on, USA got rid of the notion of biological warfare in 1960s and successfully negotiated the treaty known as ‘’Biological Weapons Convention”. In explaining the U.S. decision, President Richard Nixon commented in 1970 that “we’ll never use the damn germs, so what good is biological warfare as a deterrent? If somebody uses germs on us, we’ll nuke them.” The treaty has been effective since 1975 and more than a hundred countries are signatories to it. Similarly, China also developed its biological weapons in response to the Imperial Japanese Army’s biowarfare Unit 731 during World War II. Moreover, as China had not developed its nuclear weapons till 1960s, so, she adverted to developing biological weapons. But by 1982, China had acquired a largely invulnerable retaliatory nuclear arsenal. Two years later, China acceded to the BWC. China and the United States are both parties to the BWC, but they still look upon each other with suspicion. After the 2002–3 SARS outbreak, some Chinese military experts invoked a scenario of enemies spraying unknown SARS-like viruses on Beijing during airstrikes.

In 2004, the Indian government accused “promiscuous Pakistanis” of conducting Islamic “jihad terrorism” by deliberately spreading HIV in Kashmir. So, the blame game has a history and emblematic of a classical security dilemma. Whether a disease is naturally occurring or deliberately caused can be difficult to tell, because many biological agents are naturally accessible, and their production is of dual use up to the point of weaponization.

Covid-19 and Social Collapse:

Disasters, calamities, or epidemic occur to check the health of humanity. Since COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic, multiple footages of brawls and scuffles are being witnessed. The world has become restless. The streets, restaurants, and markets are deserted. Flights have been suspended and the passengers of virus-ridden countries are being intercepted from boarding the airplanes. The fits of anxiety are steering the people to strike each other with derogatory remarks regarding race and ethnicity. People of China are being blamed for the spread of the pandemic. There are instances of upheavals at a small scale in Australia and Italy, where people are dragging each other owing to the shortage of toilet papers. In Pakistan, the face mask suppliers have become a mafia by hoarding and then selling the masks at an immense price. In all the above-mentioned soap operas, one thing is sure that the world is declining the ways which are compassionate and empathetic. It looks like the forces of apathy are becoming stronger than empathy, especially as the crisis is deepening. Herein, a question arises that why is it so? Why the people are deviating from the lessons of virtue?

In my opinion, there is only one fear which is driving the people to go insane and it is “the fear of death”. People do not want to die. They love this life so much that they would happily descend themselves from the pinnacle of morality to the dark ghettos of immorality. The eruption of scuffles for toilet papers is the manifestation of the dark side of human behaviour which is usually turned on when there is a threat to his/her survival.

In such desperate circumstances, governments need to teach people the ways which are compassionate and empathetic. They should dispel the horrors of death by invoking the spirit of humanity through targeted campaigns at social and electronic media. In the end, the masses need to understand that the crisis is not here to stay but to test their behaviours in this crucial time.

Rabi Chandoor
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