"What do they know?" Defense Dept report warns future pandemics will target specific genomes, races

The coronavirus (COVID-19) served as a wake-up call of what can be done with bioengineered viruses when they escape from a lab. A report in Natural News warns that future pandemics may be specifically targeted toward specific genomes and races. 

According to the piece, scientists and some in the medical community have long been concerned about “engineered pathogens”; however, technological advances have made such pathogens “a very real possibility.” 

The Rand Corporation recently issued a report that the National Research Defense Institute funded, and the Secretary of Defense warned about the ability of engineered pathogens to be converted for weapons-grade use while emphasizing that countries need to take such technological advancements into account when strategizing and planning to deal with potential bio-attacks. 

In particular, the report warns about “synthetically generated and genomically targeted plagues” as areas of concern. 

“Technological improvements, including messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines, the use of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) gene sequences as a genetic engineering tool, and advances in BCI (brain-computer interfaces), may shift strategic calculations,” it stated. 

Historically, biological weapons were pretty much ignored due to the risk of those deploying them also sustaining collateral damage, Natural News said. Since such pathogens typically enjoy easy movement, the likelihood of affecting or otherwise injuring those who release them was considered too risky to make bio-weapons a viable alternative. 

However, rapid advancements in biotechnology have led to engineered pathogens that can be targeted to individuals possessing specific genetic markers. That means a particular group of people could be targeted without harming those deploying the weapons. Imagine such a weapon in the hands of a madman such as Adolf Hitler, who committed genocide against Jews nearly 100 years ago. 

The other frightening thing is that CRISPR and artificial intelligence have grown more cost-effective, meaning such weapons may be an area of increased focus in weapons development going forward. 

There is also the issue of tracing the source of such pathogens. That would serve to make these bioweapons attractive to “clandestine operations” since it would be difficult, if not impossible, to hold them accountable. 

The report reads, “In comparison with nontransmissible pathogens, transmissible ones are inherently difficult to attribute to an actor or even to natural versus human causes…[and] have much greater potential for mass casualties and societal disruption.” 

All of this emphasized that security at biolabs is more critical than ever. Creating such weapons requires “high-level technology that can be very expensive,” which means that “many countries, paramilitary operations, and terrorist groups will lack the resources to develop them,” Natural News wrote. Therefore, labs would become attractive targets for malicious actors looking to steal technology in more advanced countries working on this type of technology. 

Many biosafety labs working with human and animal-borne pathogens are being built globally. Moreover, BSL-4 labs–those capable of handling the world’s most dangerous pathogens–are “being built in droves,” including 30 such labs being built in Europe since 2000. 

Meanwhile, India and the Philippines are constructing 18 new BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs. Those facilities are researching solutions to natural pathogens, however, they are additional targets for those seeking to steal pathogens. 

China, which one would believe is among those nations interested in developing such weapons, nonetheless saw its spy agency caution about the threat of genetic weapons last fall that were capable of targeting specific races. 

The Ministry of State Security on a Chinese social media app warned, “If used by individuals or organizations with ulterior motives, genetic weapons can even be developed to kill targets of a predetermined race, thereby selectively attacking targets with specific racial genes.” 

They also warned that such weapons are a more significant threat than chemical and biological weapons of the traditional variety, adding that they are “easy to spread, hard to prevent and isolate, and highly concealable.”