User:2ndReconCorpsman/Biological warfare

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A biological attack could conceivably result in large numbers of civilian casualties and cause severe disruption to economic and societal infrastructure. When we compare the potential casualties of biological weapons and more conventual weapons of mass destruction (WMD), biological weapons potential causalities are far greater than a nuclear weapon. A 10 kiloton (KT) nuclear warhead blast radius from the epicenter to the outer edge of the initial blast zone is 4 miles. The Hiroshima Bomb, "Little Boy", ranged between 12 to 18 kilotons, killing approximately 129,000 to 229,000 people. A biological agent, such as yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes bubonic plague, has no clearly defined range of effectiveness. The agent can be spread from person to person and can travel as far as the chain of infection will allow until the chain of infection is broken. It is estimated that bubonic plague has killed 75- 200 million people worldwide.

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