Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, an expert in chemical and biological weapons and biosecurity, is the author of "Chemical Warrior: Syria, Salisbury and Saving Lives at War. " We also face additional biosecurity threats, now that advances in technology mean that many civilian research projects in medicine have the potential to be used in military applications. However, it is poorly funded in comparison to other treaties like the Chemical Weapons Convention, and does not have a corresponding body like the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to police it. For many biosecurity threats, medical countermeasure (MCMs) development is as close to a silver bullet as it gets. Given how poorly many countries have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, improving biosecurity in the face of what could be significantly worse biological threats in future is imperative.
