Biological agents differ from nuclear, radiological, and chemical ones by the methods of influence on the human body and by the size of the expansion. Biological warfare, also called germ warfare, is one of the most known weapons of mass destruction. Germ warfare involves various toxins, bacteria, insects, or viruses and is used in order to kill humans or start a war. There are various ways of a biological attack, such as infecting people by the alimentary route or implementing infectious aerosols.
In my opinion, biological warfare is one of the most severe methods of starting a war or torturing enemies. Biological warfare is considered as one of the most demolishing weapons as it does not require any special skills to be used, is cost-effective, and difficult to disclose, but can target the entire population (Flora, 2019). From my point of view, the future perspectives or threats of using such an agent remain unpredictable. Military and scientific forces of no countries currently possess the needed knowledge, equipment, technologies to cultivate biological weapons that could harm the entire humanity or nation in short terms or produce the wanted impact. However, in the future, in the case of the development of such a weapon, the owner would be in a privileged position, and international conflicts would seem to become more brutal. Those weapons’ impact would still be unpredictable and could even lead to the extinction of humanity.
Nowadays, it is the era of microbiology, and countries possess huge amounts of scientific labs. Therefore, humans have the possibility to examine viruses, learn their impact on the body, and develop ways of protection. To my mind, none of us are ready to fight such biological agents, as seen in the current COVID-19 example. Therefore, new methods such as immunity-raising drugs, more qualified virologists, or high-reactionary systems require to be developed. However, people’s knowledge on that issue can be adapted to new situations as well.
References
Flora, S.J.S., Pachauri, V. (2019). Handbook on biological warfare preparedness. Academic Press.