WI: Biological Chernobyl
- Thread starter asnys
- Start date
It sorta happened at Sverdlovsk in '79, though only about a hundred people were killed by the anthrax release there.
I think it would end up being way worse both in actual and psychological terms. Radiation just sort of wafts around, creates a dead zone, and increases cancer rates, but life otherwise continues. But biological agents are more active and can spread among the greater population, so they occupy a seat of greater terror in the popular imagination. The Soviets may well have to quarantine whole cities, and if they give the whole affair a similar media blackout like with Chernobyl, it would cause even greater distrust in the state.
Ironically though it might not be as big of a deal in the West as Chernobyl was since if the Soviets get the germs under control properly it wouldn't spread.
Ironically though it might not be as big of a deal in the West as Chernobyl was since if the Soviets get the germs under control properly it wouldn't spread.
Sverdlovsk was small enough that they were able to (mostly) cover it up. I'm talking about something bigger.
It depends on what gets released. Something like anthrax isn't significantly contagious. And for some reason proteinaceous poisons like botulinism and mycotoxins get lumped into BW, even though they're basically really nasty chemical agents. The Soviets did apparently stockpile plague germs for some awful reason, though. I doubt that it could get bad enough to make nuclear weapons desirable, but it could get pretty bad...
Do you think this would hasten the Soviet collapse?
The Soviets were doing some nasty research on an endemic to Mongolia version of plague that's chiefly pneumonic, smallpox, and various hemorrhagic fevers mostly centered on hardening and weaponizing them.
if i recall correctly, a alike incident happened near a test site in the (then bigger) aral sea. some fishermen came to close and took a modified smallpox home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_smallpox_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_smallpox_incident
Well the news of the outbreak spread to the West quite quickly, though the Soviets claimed it was a natural outbreak. The Aral smallpox leak might be more suitable as smallpox is far more infectious than anthrax, though vaccination would help.
Everyone was stockpiling biological weapons back then.
It would depend on the scale; the Soviets were quite adept at managing civil unrest. They could handle a large scale quarantine, additional movement restrictions, isolation of those suspected of being infected and mass vaccinations quite well, probably better than the West.
Ah yes, the "enhanced" smallpox accident. That could have got out of hand quite quickly if Burgasov hasn't intervened.
Cook
Banned
How is it transferred; what is the means of infecting people? If it is pneumonic then there would be very little concern for Europe and the wider world; closed borders remember? We'd look on and make remarks about pigeons coming home to roost, military spokespeople would assure the public it couldn't happen here, and then ask for increased funding for biological weapons research because the Soviets had just demonstrated that they were undeniably developing them, and teams from various national CDC's might be allowed to lend assistance (but probably not).
The Soviets either weaponised or attempted to, anthrax, brucellosis, plague, tularemia, glanders, Q-fever, smallpox, VEEV and Marburg. Most require an animal vector, though pneumonic plague is airborne and Marburg is transmitted by bodily fluid droplets (like the similar EVD).
The Soviets did have a couple of minor lab accidents with Murburg.