In a table-top pandemic exercise at Johns Hopkins University last year, a pathogen based on the emerging Nipah virus was released by fictional extremists, killing 150 million people.
A less
apocalyptic scenario mapped out by a blue-ribbonU.S. panel envisioned Nipah
being dispersed by terrorists and claiming over 6,000 American lives.
Scientists
from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) have also said the highly
lethal bug is a potential bio-weapon.
But this
March that same lab shipped samples of the henipavirus family and of Ebola to
China, which has long been suspected of running a secretive biological warfare (BW)
program.
China
strongly denies it makes germ weapons, and Canadian officials say the shipment
was part of its efforts to support public-health research worldwide. Sharing of
such samples internationally is relatively standard practice.
But some
experts are raising questions about the March transfer, which appears to be at
the centre of a shadowy RCMP investigation and dismissal of a top scientist at
the Winnipeg-based NML.
“I would
say this Canadian ‘contribution’ might likely be counterproductive,” said Dany
Shoham, a biological and chemical warfare expert at Israel’s Bar-Ilan
University. “I think the Chinese activities … are highly suspicious, in terms
of exploring (at least) those viruses as BW agents. “
James
Giordano , a neurology professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow in
biowarfare at the U.S. Special Operations Command, said it’s worrisome on a few
fronts.
China’s
growing investment in bio-science, looser ethics around gene-editing and other
cutting-edge technology and integration between government and academia raise
the spectre of such pathogens being weaponized, he said.
That
could mean an offensive agent, or a modified germ let loose by proxies, for
which only China has the treatment or vaccine, said Giordano, co-head of
Georgetown’s Brain Science and Global Law and Policy Program.
“This is
not warfare, per se,” he said. “But what it’s doing is leveraging the
capability to act as global saviour, which then creates various levels of macro
and micro economic and bio-power dependencies.”
Asked if
the possibility of the Canadian germs being diverted into a Chinese weapons
program is connected to other upheaval at the microbiology lab, Public Health
Agency of Canada spokeswoman Anna Maddison said this week the agency “continues
to look into the administrative matter.”
The
agency divulged last week that it sent samples of Ebola and henipavirus — which
includes Nipah and the related Hendra — to China in March. It was meant for
virus research, part of the agency’s mission to back international
public-health research, a spokesman said.
Last
month, an acclaimed NML scientist —Xiangguo Qiu — was reportedly escorted out
of the lab along with her husband, another biologist, and members of her
research team. The agency said it was investigating an “administrative issue,”
and had referred a possible policy breach to the RCMP. Little more has been
said about the affair.
China
has been a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention since 1984, and has
repeatedly insisted it is abiding by the treaty that bans developing
bio-weapons.
But suspicions
have persisted, with the U.S. State Department and other agencies stating
publicly as recently as 2009 that they believe China has offensive biological
agents.
Though
no details have appeared in the open literature, China is “commonly considered
to have an active biological warfare program,” says the Federation of American
Scientists. An official with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of
Chemical Defence charged last month China is the world leader in toxin
“threats.”
In a2015
academic paper, Shoham – of Bar-Ilan’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies
– asserts that more than 40 Chinese facilities are involved in bio-weapon
production.
China’s
Academy of Military Medical Sciences actually developed an Ebola drug – called
JK-05 — but little has been divulged about it or the defence facility’s
possession of the virus, prompting speculation its Ebola cells are part of China’s
bio-warfare arsenal, Shoham told the National Post.
Ebola is
classified as a “category A” bioterrorism agent by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, meaning it could be easily transmitted from person to
person, would result in high death rates and “might cause panic.” The CDC lists
Nipah as a category C substance, a deadly emerging pathogen that could be
engineered for mass dissemination.
Nipah, which
was first seen in Malaysia in 1998, has caused a series of outbreaks across
east and south Asia, with death rates mostly over 50 per cent, and as high as
100 per cent, according toWorld Health Organization figures. It can cause
encephalitis, an often-fatal brain swelling, and has no known treatment or
vaccine.
The
Johns Hopkins exercise — called Clade X — involved a version of Nipah modified
to be more easily passed between people. America’s Blue Ribbon Study Panel on
Biodefence prefaced its 2015 report with a scenario involving the intentional
release of Nipah by aerosol spray.
China’s
extensive and controversial use of CRISPR gene-editing and related technology
makes it conceivable the country could bio-engineer germs like Nipah to make
them even more dangerous, Giordano said.
***More:
https://beta.canada.com/health/bio-warfare-experts-question-why-canada-was-sending-lethal-viruses-to-china/wcm/fce2a521-4ce1-4eb0-8ccf-43f165713c0b/amp/
https://idsa.in/system/files/jds/jds_9_2_2015_DanyShoham.pdf