Covid 19 and Novichok: Learning Lessons

The secondanniversary of the nerve agent attack in Salisbury co-incides with the arrivalof a new invisible threat – Corona virus. There’s something about these silentkillers which strikes fear into the human psyche. There are measures we cantake to combat their effectiveness, but all the while we fear they may be uponus without us knowing. A very thin silver lining in the dark cloud of Salisburyis that some of the lessons learned then are useful now.

The cost tothe UK Government of the Salisbury attack was huge, probably in the hundreds of£millions bracket.  The decontamination took 18 months for less thanquarter of an egg cup of the agent. Novichok was designed by the Russians to overmatch NATO’s defensivecapabilities, and it is extremely toxic and very persistent.  The small amount of agent is enough to killthousands of people, but for the brilliance and fortitude of the UK Military,Police, Fire and Ambulance Services this could have been the case.  A number of unlikely pieces of luck construedto turn what could have been a murder on a monumental scale to the death of aninnocent civilian. 

In Salisburythe most likely explanation of what happened remains that  It appears that two Russian secret agentstried to assassinate former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.  He and his daughter Yulia survived, butSalisbury resident Dawn Sturgess died after coming into contact with the deadlyagent Novichok.  Notwithstanding this,the Skripals have been incarcerated for the last 2 years with little hope ofreprieve as security experts  believethere remains a threat to their lives after the bungled attack.

Russia hasform in the use of these morbidly brilliant weapons most notably in its supportPresident Assad’s forces. Their psychological effect to physical, is 10 as to 1and they are very survivable if you have a basic understanding of them.  This we have proved in Syria by basiceducation, and after the lessons we learnt from the Ghouta attack, relativelyfew people have become casualties in Syria, especially from the secondaryeffects but they still have the ability to terrify people.

The Coronavirus scare is also showing how fixating ‘pathogens’ can be.  If Coronawas a deadly pathogen like, plague or anthrax, we would be rightly more frightened. As it is, most governments, includingthe UK are putting in strict measures to prevent the spread of this virus.  Morbidity for Corona appears to be in thesingle digits, but man-engineered biological or chemical weapons can be in the90% bracket if untreated.  However,lessons learnt from the Salisbury attack about decontamination and passage ofinformation are standing us in good stead to likely reduce the impacts of theCorona virus.

On 4 Mar 18we knew very little about Novichok, we now know a great deal and can probablynullify most of their deadly effects. 

On thesecond anniversary of the Salisbury attack it is timely to praise those who somassively reduced the impact of this crime and to remind our politicians thatthey are responsible to confine these illegal and indiscriminate weapons tohistory once again.  And thank heavens wehave brilliant emergency services, NHS and military to counter chemical attacksand the lessons learnt will put us in good stead to mitigate the worse of theCorona virus.

You can now pre-order Hamish’s new book, Chemical Warrior, from Amazon ahead of its publication in September.