The Pros And Cons Of Biological Warfare

1436 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Definition of Biological Warfare

Biological warfare is defined as, “the utilization of infectious agents and biological toxins including fungi, viruses, and bacteria in killing, incapacitating or causing injuries to plants, animals and humans as acts of war” (HRF). Biological weapons are a technological advancement that can be utilized to win wars, but the unpredictability of controlling the weapon has unforeseen side effects that cause ethical issues to arise. Even though I think having the ability to genetically alter biological organisms is a step towards improving human life, the employment of the same biological organisms in warfare is an unethical and immoral use of scientific advancement. The history behind biological warfare has been around longer than most people …show more content…

The three phases are the anticipation phase, the realism phase, and the psychiatric phase. The anticipation phase is what happens when a community encounters fear, anxiety and a low level of panic after an infection was let loose. This phase represents the vulnerability of the situation and how it can spiral out of control if the epidemic becomes critical. “Biological agents stimulate terror in the affected population because they cause injury and death in strange and prolonged ways” (Radosavljevic and Jakovlijevic 550). After the first phase the realism kicks in and people come to realize that they can easily be contaminated by the infection. After the medical workers are summoned and start treating the infection they become unresponsive to patients because they do not wish to become infected themselves. This leads to the final phase and to the aftermath of the biological attack. The psychiatric phase is when the community is recovering from illness, panic, and grief causing the most vulnerability. “The invisibility of biological agents, the possibility that the agent can be spread by personal contact, the uncertainty of the extent of dangerousness of biological weapons” (Radosavljevic and Jakovlijevic 551) are reactions that are be based off of the distress of people. All of these phases lead to the force of what a biological attack could do to a community and a country by a simple pathogen being

Show More
Related

  • Demon In The Freezer

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.

    Read More

  • Sickness In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

    241 Words  | 1 Pages

    It’s the year 2028, and the world we used to know as bright and beautiful is no longer thriving with light. A disease similar to the plague broke out and caused great havoc. Although it may seem like forever ago, sickness spread only a few years ago. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a man and his son who fortunately survived this sickness; although they made it, the struggle to keep going is tough. Before most of the population became deceased, people went insane. They started to bomb houses, burn down businesses and towns, and destroy the environment. Anyone who had the disease was bad blood. Many saw it as the end of the world, which in many cases was true.

    Read More

  • Errors In The Hot Zone

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes. One of the most common forms of errors found in the medical field is the recycling of soiled equipment. The repeated use of dirty medical equipment is found commonly in the poor regions of the world where resources are limited and fundings are bound. This is an example of the errors the human race performs that lead to disaster.

    Read More

  • Cannibal To Zombie And Back Again By Chera Kee's Better Off Dead

    1643 Words  | 4 Pages

    Though fictional, this novel illustrates the fear surrounding disease, viruses, and contamination and how if uncontrollable, could lead to a global spread that could jeopardize the human race. Traveling internationally, World War Z represents a zombie epidemic that brings forth infection, which can be considered an unconscious actor during this time of confusion and destruction. Scientifically, fear is defined as a natural response found in almost all organisms that revolve around the emotions and feelings induced by perceived threats and danger. Max Brooks illustrates the societal interaction with fear, “Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells. That was my mantra. ‘Fear sells.’” (Brooks 55). The fear of a zombie virus spreading in fact just produces more fear into the mind of the individual. Through research and scientific advancements, fears and anxieties have been proven to put an individual more at risk of developing health issues. How ironic, right? Our fears and anxieties surrounding diseases and the spread of them cause our society to be more susceptible to obtain and contract more health related problems. The fight against the zombie metaphor within World War Z gives the reader a purpose for finding a way to hold

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Fever Model Of The Haitian And The Gran Haibian Revolution

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    Resembling an illness, revolutions also happen in stages. The stages of the revolution are comparative to the stages of an illness like the flu. The fever model could be used to show the progression of the Haitian and the Gran Colombian Revolutions. Inoculation Stage: In a sickness, the inoculation stage is when the cause of the illness first comes into contact with the person, infecting him, but not yet causing any symptoms. In a revolution, the inoculation stage may include the political, social, intellectual, or economic causes of the revolution.

    Read More

  • The Sterilization of Native American Women in the 1970's

    2793 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the old days, genocide used to be so simple. Such things as biological warfare used to keep Indians warm with small pox infested blankets furnished by the United States government, and the only thing barren and infertile was the land set aside for reservations. In the 1970s, genocide became a little more complex. Biological warfare invaded the reproductive rights of Native American women, making their wombs as barren and infertile as reservation land. The sterilization policies during this time perpetuated the genocidal tendencies that have made the eugenics movement a viable legacy of terror in the biological history of Native Americans.

    Read More

  • Years of Wonder: Surviving the Great Plague

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    The psychological implications that a bacterial plague causes were completely defined in the novel. Without a feasible method of recourse, the tormenting effects of a wide spreading plague drive individuals to the trenches of their own emotions. The fear and constant looming outcome of death test the vary existence of one’s sanity. The miserable and worried, flock to answers they must find but never reach. Religious fervor and seemingly ridiculous forms of enchantment are legitimized for the sake of somehow terminating the impending doom. Days proceed and bodies just continue to fall, pessimistic conclusions are reached. There seemingly is no cure, no way out of the plague’s clutches. This gloom augments the worst fibers of the human spirit. Individuals have lost so much; they must attain some path of hope. Inhibited mental states and hysterical delusion are manifested in deplorable cruelty, such as the murders of those deemed guilty for causing such needless destruction. In Years of Wonder, the village of Eyam breaks into the brinks of craziness. Helpful apothecaries and caregivers are ironically executed for conditions they only hoped to solve. Conditions eventually became so terrible and encompassing, individuals eventually felt some wrathful deity must be punishing them. Villagers started to practice self-flagellation to make amends with God for the possible sins they committed. All of these miserable consequences speak volume

    Read More

  • The 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic

    2713 Words  | 6 Pages

    ”2 Although business was booming for these professions, it was not because of the war. It was the result of an unexpected killer that swept across the world, claiming victims at an unprecedented rate. The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic stretched its lethal tentacles all over the globe, even to the most remote areas of the planet, killing fifty million people or possibly even more. Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century, and it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years.3 Influenza normally kills the elderly and infants, but this deadly and abnormal strand claimed young people, those in their twenties or thirties as its target victims.

    Read More

  • Plagues in England: Death Is in the Air

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    German scientist and satirist, Georg C. Lichtenberg, once said, “Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.” Sickness affects everyone, no matter where one is from or how one lives. Even in today’s world with modern medicine, sickness runs rampant. If one were to think back to when the only cures society had were rituals, a prime example of sickness in a society is England. Recalling the plagues in England, one can easily see the two prominent plagues that struck, along with how they affected English economy and culture.

    Read More

  • The Case Of Mass Hysteria In The Salem Witch Trials

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    Often, outbreaks affect teenage girls more than boys (Small). In Belgium, Coca-Cola withdrew thirty million cans and bottles from being sold because almost one hundred students suffered from cramps, nausea, headaches and palpitations after drinking Coca-Cola. Additionally, students from other schools began to feel similar symptoms which lead the company to recall the product. Due to this mass hysteria outbreak, the drink was examined and the toxicology reports showed that there was nothing wrong and they could not find any evidence of contaminants to explain the epidemic (Dillner). People’s minds can be persuaded into believing that what is happening to someone else is going to happen to them. Mass hysteria can happen anywhere to anyone, as long as they are susceptible enough and are ready to fall into a state of delusion. For example, in Tanzania, chaos ensued after a female student fainted, causing twenty other girls to lose consciousness. Other students yelled and ran around the school. No medical cause was found, but exams put extreme pressure on the students which may have lead to the fainting spells and mass hysteria (Waller). Hysteria pushes people over the edge while allowing their minds take over which manifest with physical symptoms. Mass hysteria thrives on the fear that people have and when put into a certain situation, mass hysteria can become

    Read More

  • Camus' The Plague

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plague affected people not only on a physical level but a mental one as well. The mental health of the citizens of Oran was amongst the plague's many victims, it suffered of exhaustion as well as being forced to handle mental confrontations. When the citizens dealt with these issues, some people lost their capacity to love as intently, but overall the general capacity of people to uphold their devotion remained resilient to the challenges the plague provided.

    Read More

  • The Deadly Ebola Virus

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ebola, a major threat to today's society, is threatening all parts of today's culture. In this paper one will be presented with six major points of analyses. The first an outbreak timeline, the next three are a basic overview of the deadly virus. In the fifth, one will be presented with what things are being blamed for these violent outbreaks. And in the sixth and final point one will be shown what is being done to better the situation.

    Read More

  • Possibility of Zombie Apocalypse

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... When the people leave that area, they carry people or animals that may be carrying the infection to uninfected populations, thus creating a pandemic. Once the infection spreads to a pandemic status, the world’s military will crumble; there will be mass panic and anarchy in cities everywhere. Looters, pillagers, plunderers, and thieves will run rampant with no law enforcement to uphold the peace.

    Read More

  • Outbreak Movie Analysis

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie Outbreak is a wonderful portrayal of how the Chain of Infection works in an epidemic and pandemic outbreak of a disease. The shows how quickly the disease gained power and was responsible for sickness and death in a small community. Pathogens that invade the body have 5 requirements for a successful invasion on their host whether it is a human or animal. I will further review how the movie successfully reflects the reservoir/host, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry and susceptible host to provide the perfect Outbreak of the disease. The same model still used today in science.

    Read More

  • Biological Weapons and Biological Warfare

    1477 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis: Biological Warfare is morally and inhumanely wrong, It is the wrongful killing of men, women, and children. It should be stopped no matter what the circumstances are.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Biological Warfare

Open Document