This article in the National Defense Magazine makes the case that funding and attention should not be taken away from successful WMD programs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or any other crisis. The existence of one crisis does not mean the other is less likely to happen. The opposite may be true. A terrorist group could use one crisis as a distraction to easily operate unnoticed to commit an attack creating a completely different crisis. We need to stay prepared for all possible threats to the US that come from so many actors, State or individuals.

Because these WMD threat reduction programs have been successful, the focus has been taken away from these programs to put towards other priorities. The funding for these programs is dangerously low. I agree with the author when stated that it will be more difficult and expensive to build these programs back once they become dismantled. As the author states, “canceling insurance won’t save money in the long run, cutting prevention and threat reduction programs won’t yield savings. The cuts will instead prompt greater needs for more weapons to enhance deterrence.” We have come so far in reducing the threat of nuclear and radiological that many experts believe that these are not much of a threat anymore.

Here is where I’m going to throw in some of my opinion, some based on my experience and knowledge of CBRN weapons. I was a CBRN Specialist in the Army and received extensive training for each of the CBRN threats. When COVID-19 first made its debut in Wuhan, China, and based on my training it was evident to me that the virus came from a lab or was intentionally released. The veracity at which the Chinese government quarantined, set up support hospitals and refused the World Health Organization’s or CDC help alerted me to my feeling on the matter. If this is proven to be true through a current investigation by the WHO the case could be made for funding increased to underfunded WMD programs.

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