In the mid-1980s, I developed and program managed a research initiative in genetic engineering for advanced materials and structures. The fundamental scientific theory underpinning all of it was a cell is a manufacturing facility that imports resources, manages and manipulates the use of those resources, and ultimately creates a useful product. However, because I was the only individual in the research and technology department to be working in genetic engineering, I was given the nuclear, chemical and biological defense program to manage.
A review of history showed that nuclear warfare involves wide area destruction. Nothing subtle about it as Hiroshima and Nagasaki clearly demonstrated. Chemical warfare was widely used in trench warfare in WW1, but it was not easily controlled because of the vagaries of wind. Chemical warfare’s best use targeted small contained areas or individuals. The Pandora’s box was and is biological warfare. It could be introduced almost anywhere with anything and could take advantage of changing environmental conditions. In a terrifying sense, biological warfare and genetic engineering work hand in hand.
Recent studies have discounted the idea that COVID -19 is some type of evolution of natural viruses. As one recent prestigious study indicated, there is no evidence to support the idea that this pandemic is natural in origin. Thus, the inescapable conclusion is that genetic engineering has created a biological weapon. Pandora’s box has been opened and the demons of biological hell are now in play.
If this is an artificial man-made genetically engineered virus that has not existed in nature, how do we know that combatting it with vaccines designed against it will actually work? The vaccines themselves are disconnected from nature because the COVID -19 virus is not connected to nature. Is this the reason that vaccine effectiveness wanes relatively quickly? Is this the reason that vaccinated individuals are increasingly subject to breakthrough disease? Is this the reason that there are so many unusual side effects – and are there more to come?
I remember a discussion about bioethics. The focus at the time was cloning, and we now know that cloning of animals, as well as plants, is well established. There are also scientists trying to bring back to life extinct animals like the Wooly Mammoth. This is relative child’s play compared to the infinite number of opportunities to create biological weapons at the viral, bacterial and fungal levels.
What will the next genetic manipulation produce in the nature of a more sophisticated biological weapon? So far, the COVID-19 bioweapon has produced trillions of dollars worth of chaos. CNN’s health tracker states that “authorities in 222 countries and territories have reported about 229.3 million Covid-19 cases and 4.7 million deaths since China reported its first cases to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2019”. And this is not yet 2 years ago.
Billy Graham is quoted as saying “We can’t go on much longer morally. We can’t go on much longer scientifically. The technology that was supposed to save us is ready to destroy us. New weapons are being made all the time, including chemical and biological weapons. Today the only bright spot on the horizon of this world is the promise of the coming again of Christ.” His words are prophetic.
In conclusion, the COVID -19 pandemic has demonstrated the frailty of the highly developed modern world. Has mankind learned enough yet to understand that weaponizing biology isn’t a good idea? I suspect not.