“It was once thought that a terrorist or nation-state would be unlikely to weaponize a pathogen that could easily blow back on them. COVID may have changed some of that calculus. Western democracies proved uniquely incapable of implementing respiratory precautions and defending from this threat. The US was one of the worst hit among nations. Terrorists along with more traditional nation-state adversaries may now see that respiratory pathogens are a poor man’s nuclear weapon.”