Week #2

Viruses as Weapons: COVID and Small Pox

Dennis Valdes

Miami Dade College

June 25, 2021

During the Coronavirus pandemic, there has been increased speculation about the origins of the virus.[footnoteRef:1] Where did COVID come from? Was it an accident or could it have been intentional? The virus origins are not under dispute. Experts trace the beginning of the pandemic to China. With the current geo-political situation regarding China and the United States, some have considered the theory that the virus could be used as a biological weapon.[footnoteRef:2] This would not be a new phenomenon. Viruses have been used in war before. In North America, small pox was used a viral weapon. [1: Mark Kortepeter, “A Defense Expert Explores Whether The Covid-19 Coronavirus Makes A Good Bioweapon,” Forbes (Forbes Magazine, August 21, 2020), https://www.forbes.com/sites/coronavirusfrontlines/2020/08/21/a-defense-expert-explores-whether-the-covid-19-coronavirus-makes-a-good-bioweapon/.] [2: P Ranlet, “The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in 1763?,” Pennsylvania history (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2000), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17216901.]

Philip Ranlet’s wrote about the possibility of a disease used as weapon in, “The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in 1763.” During Pontiac’s Rebellion of 1763 smallpox-laced blankets may have been deliberately given or left for natives to find and use. Ranlet details an account of infestation among native tribes dissatisfied with the British victory during the French and Indian War. The source is a correspondence between British General Jeffrey Amherst and Colonel Henry Bouquet. Amherst asked Bouquet “Could it not be contrived to send the smallpox among those disaffected tribes of Indians?” Bouquet wrote back “I will try to inoculate (them) with some blankets that may fall in their hands…”[footnoteRef:3] [3: Ibid.]

This is not direct evidence that the plan worked or was even initiated. Historian Alfred W. Crosby asserts that “intentionally transmitted disease might swing back on the white population… these people were dedicated to quarantining smallpox, not spreading it.”[footnoteRef:4] This may [4: Ibid.]

also be one of the important arguments against the theory of COVID-19 being a viral weapon created in China to use against foreign adversaries such as the United States. Although most countries adopt codes of conduct for warfare that condemn any use of biological weapons, given the history of warfare, is anything really off-limits?

Bibliography

1. Kortepeter, Mark. “A Defense Expert Explores Whether The Covid-19 Coronavirus Makes A Good Bioweapon.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, August 21, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/coronavirusfrontlines/2020/08/21/a-defense-expert-explores-whether-the-covid-19-coronavirus-makes-a-good-bioweapon/.

2. Ranlet, P. “The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in 1763?” Pennsylvania history. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2000. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17216901.