US intelligence officials are probing the possibility that America’s enemies might use the coronavirus as a bioweapon, according to an alarming report.
The Department of Defense is now monitoring for the potential of the virus to be weaponized, possibly against prominent, high-level targets, three people close to the matter told Politico.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, declined to comment on whether Department of Defense officials were analyzing COVID-19 weaponization, but said its Chemical and Biological Defense program continues to support federal coronavirus countermeasures such as testing, vaccines and screening machines.
The measures also include more than $150 million toward diagnostics and modeling capabilities, Andrews said.
It’s unclear whether defense officials have received reports indicating a heightened threat, and coordinated planning efforts typically involve a wide range of possibilities, former senior Pentagon officials told the outlet.
Andy Weber, who served as assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense program under President Obama, said the virus could be easily spread by a bad actor using a tool as rudimentary as a spray bottle.
“In its natural state, the current virus could be used as a bioweapon by less sophisticated groups,” Weber told Politico. “Or, for a nation-state with a more advanced biological weapons program, this virus could be given enhanced characteristics.”
The nightmare scenario, however, still “seems to be a lower-risk concern,” one Department of Defense official told Politico.
There’s no evidence yet to back up a theory that the bug originated in a lab in China or that it was intentionally created to be used as a weapon, sources close to the matter told the outlet.
