[Servant of the Nine]

Man made plague.

There is zero evidence for that.
If you wish to believe it as a matter of religious conviction, be my guest.

This is a Coronavirus. They mutate constantly, that is why we have never been able to develop a vaccine for the common cold. This one is more lethal than any in memory, but given the hundreds of new varients that appear every year, it was inevitable.

There has never been any indication that any nation was incompetent enough to use a Coronavirus as the precursor of a bioweapon, precisely because it mutates wildly.
There is no way you can hope to vaccinate and protect your own troops and population.

So9

[aristeides]

There has never been any indication that any nation was incompetent enough to use a Coronavirus as the precursor of a bioweapon, precisely because it mutates wildly. There is no way you can hope to vaccinate and protect your own troops and population.

You still might be willing to use it if you're in a Goetterdaemmerung mood, as Hitler was in April 1945.

[kinghorse]

Begging your pardon but the retro terror groups want the western economies destroyed. China is the locus of western investment. China is a perfect launching pad for a bug bomb.

The fundamentalists want a world of despair. It brings them power because it puts them at equal footing with advanced societies.

Mumps measles cocktails do not spring forth from the wild.

[Domestic Church]

"There is no way you can hope to vaccinate and protect your own troops and population."

No need to vaccinate in China...this answers their population issue. Even if their population is cut in half they will have enough still for manufacturing and a standing army.