Chinese spy balloon over USA

[Tiassa]

Balloons carrying chemicals and/or virus could potentially wipe out an entire populated continent if no counter could be developed.

That's the sort of supervillain plan that would see Elon Musk in charge of China, but, yes, it's possible. Part of the madness, though, is the unpredictability of it. If the Chinese or Russians, for instance, went through Canada to get at the U.S. with one of those weapons, it would be on Canada's behalf that most of the world would shut up while the Americans sallied forth to settle the question.

And the southwest, I don't even know how the winds work, but to guess by the hurricanes, you could aim for Los Angeles, California, and take out Guerrero Negro and the Vizcaino, in the Baja.

The Chinese balloon is said to have launched from Hainan, in the South China Sea. A bioweapon launch from that location would be too dangerous for the Chinese.

But if we really want to fret about it, I suppose we could speculate about pretty much any place in the northern Pacific. Between Air Force and Navy, there should be at least someone knows the winds, and which courses to watch.

 

[Pinball1970]

I would mostly agree. Simple things like a non indigenous species can wreak havoc in an established ecosystem. Balloons carrying chemicals and/or virus could potentially wipe out an entire populated continent if no counter could be developed. Bio weapons to be certain are already a concern around the globe.

Too risky, releasing a payload at 60,000 ft, the altitude it was shot down at could go anywhere.
Just one of the many reconnaissance balloons they use.
The fact it not only hovered over sensitive military sites but passed over them multiple times, was worrying at the time.
A contact confirmed it was not a weather balloon.
The US played it down a little bit claiming the balloon had limited capability.