I said precisely what you initially said. Get a thousand sick Chinamen to fly all over the country.
People get sick, and there is no direct blame either.
I was involved in a serious smallpox defense exercise in 2002. The premise was infect ten men in the Middle East, fly to Montreal, get on a bus to Florida, one guy gets off every 200 miles, in NY, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, etc.
30 million dead, minimum.
The balloons are very dangerous because they are human directed, entering our airspace with unknown intent, and more are on the way in response to our reaction to the first one.
We have to stop them right now - but not because of germs.
“ Get a thousand sick Chinamen to fly all over the country.”
If they have access to variola (smallpox) they don’t need 1000. Five to ten would do the trick.
And can you imagine trying to do ring vaccination under current circumstances?