USA vs China: Can H7N9 Virus Be Biosychological Weapon?
China is reporting about another epidemic of the so-called bird flu (also known as virus H7N9). It has already suspended the domestic poultry trade. Numerous markets are closed in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities. Chinese bloggers keep posting shocking footage showing dead birds.

At the same time, top-ranking Chinese military officials put the blame on the USA. They say this is some kind of a secret biotechnological weapon developed and used by the Americans.


Russia takes urgent steps to prevent the epidemic from spreading over its territory. Russia’s chief medical officer urges people to abstain from visiting the neighboring Asian country. There are temporary limitations for those who arrive from China. Russia may eventually close the border with China until the situation stabilizes.
 
What is really happening in China? How dangerous is the current epidemic? Can the USA be involved?
Let’s try to answer these questions together…
 
Virus In China

 
The Chinese epidemic of H7N9 does look strange. If not to go deep into medical details, there are some obvious factors that should be taken into account:
 
·         The virus is new to humans because until recently people cannot catch it from birds. That is why it looks alarming.
·         Moreover, the speed at which it is spreading looks frightening.
·         It can mutate. Some sources say it has undergone 3 to 5 mutations.
·         It is a strain of a deadly virus, which can turn out to be anomalously aggressive.
 
Some Chinese military say this is a biotechnological weapon developed by the USA. They say that the situation is similar to the one we saw in 2013, when atypical pneumonia broke out in China. At that time the USA was waging war in Iraq and got afraid that China may take some counteractions. That is why the USA used the virus to undermine the stability in China and benefit from it.

Therefore, this means that the virus is controlled and has specific targets.
 
Conspiracy or Myth?
Can humans create a group of deadly viruses to use it as a weapon? In 2005, some internet sources wrote that US scientists managed to reconstruct the deadly “Spanish flu” virus that took some 40 million lives in 1918. This means that scientists are working on such viruses. If this is the case, the authorities can secretly use the weapon of mass destruction. Moreover, the virus may be released accidentally, as the result of some leaks.
 
Anything is possible. Still, experts say that the contemporary science hasn’t reached the level at which it could create viruses. By the way, if to consider the “Spanish flue’ reconstructed a decade ago by American biologists turned out to be less dangerous than some instances of seasonal flu.
 
The thing is that a virus attack needs certain conditions and environment, the experts say. Let’s look at an example. During World War II, Japan created a special squad, which was involved in creating biological weapons. As a result, they killed some 700 Chinese in 1940-1945. However, they failed to start a serious epidemic.
 
There are too many variables, including weather conditions. Moreover, there are no guarantees that those who try to use a deadly virus as a weapon against their enemies won’t suffer from it themselves.

Therefore, it seems that H7N9 is more like a “natural product”, especially if to take in to the fact the fact that viruses are constantly mutating.  Moreover, the actual state of affairs in China is not as serious. Therefore, there is no need to scare people at this point. In this aspect, a natural question arises: Who is interested in exaggerating the situation?
 
 
Cui Prodest?
 
There are several options.


Chinese authorities may be interested in spreading the virus in order to distract people’s attention from the current economic difficulties, including a GDP slowdown and
 
By the way, the People’s Bank of China has recently set the USDCHY eхchange rate at 6,2452 – the highest level since 2005, when China started revaluing the Renminbi.
 
The chart below, courtesy of Masterforex-V Academy, reflects the current state of affairs in the market of USDCNY:
 
The USA may also be interested in spreading the deadly virus over the territory of its major opponent. You know that China is the only economy that can outpace the USA within the next 5-10 years in terms of GDP. China doesn’t mind become the next superpower dominating the world. Apparently, the confrontation between the USA and China is escalating. 
 
There may well be a pharmaceutical conspiracy. For example, in 2009, when the swine flu broke out, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (a major Swiss pharmaceutical company) saw its income boosting by 1000% up to $1bn.

Let’s take the bird flu pandemic in 2003-2008. Only 361 people caught it worldwide during the period. 227 of them died. That means that it killed less people than an ordinary seasonal flu. However, pharmaceutical companies mad billions of dollars on that.
 
Or maybe it is all about the foolishness shown by one particular Chinese military official and his followers?

Anyway, conventional wisdom says that the easiest explanation is the right on in most cases…