Lecture 20. A Brief History of Bioterrorism/Biological Warfare

Question 1

What is biological warfare (BW)?

Answer 1

The use of infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) or biological toxins with intent to kill or incapacitate people, animals or plants as an act of war

Question 2

What is bioterrorism?

Answer 2

Terrorism (unofficial/unauthorised use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of an ideological cause) involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents

Question 3

What was the ‘Hittie plague?’

Answer 3

A long-lasting epidemic of a ‘pestilence’ in the Eastern Mediterranean that started in the 14th century BCE
Started in Canaan (Israel), then spread to Syria

Question 4

What started the war between the Tatars and Genoese?

Answer 4

1343 brawl leaving a Tatar dead

Question 5

Why did the Tatars siege Kaffa?

Answer 5

The Genoese were hiding there

Question 6

What did Jani Beg Khan order his soldiers to do in 1346?

Answer 6

Catapult the plague-infested corpses of the reinforcements from Sarai and Astrakhan into the city

Question 7

Why was the siege of Kaffa important?

Answer 7

Allowed the Black Death to enter Europe and was the first account of biological warfare

Question 8

What was Pontiac’s rebellion in 1763?

Answer 8

Launched by a confederation of North American Indian
tribes upset by the post-war policies of British General Lord Jeffery Amherst, in the Great Lakes/Ontario/Ohio region after the British victory in the French and Indian War (1754–1763)

Question 9

What did the British do to quell Pontiac’s rebellion?

Answer 9

Give the natives two blankets and a handkerchief from the smallpox hospital, resulting in a smallpox epidemic that decimated the North American Indians loyal to the French in 1767

Question 10

What allegations were made against the Germans during WW1

Answer 10

Attempted to spread cholera in Italy, plague in St. Petersburg, and biological bombs over Britain

Question 11

What was the first multilateral agreement that was signed to extended the prohibition of chemical agents to biological agents and when was it signed?

Answer 11

The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (Geneva Protocol)
1925

Question 12

Which country refused to sign the Geneva Protocol?

Answer 12

Japan

Question 13

What was Unit 731?

Answer 13

A biological warfare unit set up by the Japanese in Pingfang district and was disguised as a water-purification plant

Question 14

What did Shiro Ishii do?

Answer 14

Field-tested BW on Chinese soldiers and civilians, tens of thousands are thought to have died as a result of plague, cholera, anthrax, etc.

Question 15

What was developed by the Japanese in 1940?

Answer 15

Plague infected fleas from Unit 731 were dropped by Japanese planes at Ningbo, 99 deaths recorded

Question 16

What island was used by the British to test anthrax?

Answer 16

Gruinard Island

Question 17

What was the 1966 subway experiment?

Answer 17

A light bulb containing Bacillus globigii was dropped in New York City’s subway system; based on the circulation measurements, thousands of people would have been killed if a dangerous microbe was released in the same manner

Question 18

What did the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) ban in 1972?

Answer 18

The development, stockpiling, acquisition, retention, and production of:
- Biological agents and toxins “of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes;”
- Weapons, equipment, and delivery vehicles “designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.”
The transfer of or assistance with acquiring the agents, toxins, weapons, equipment, and delivery vehicles described above

Question 19

How many countries have signed the BWC?

Answer 19

177

Question 20

Who was assassinated with a BW stored in an umbrella?

Answer 20

1978: Georgi Markov was injected in the leg with with a 90% platinum and 10% iridium pellet impregnated with the toxic plant protein ricin

Question 21

How many people died in the 1979 explosion at Sverdolsk and what did they die of?

Answer 21

~1,000 people died from inhalation anthrax (US view)
Or 64 people died from gastrointestinal anthrax after eating contaminated meat (USSR view)