Vial with nerve agent that killed woman contained enough to kill thousands

6 pointsposted 8 hours ago
by alamortsubite
(abcnews.go.com)

7 Comments

throw310822

7 hours ago

These calculations seem always a bit odd- what does it mean to "have the potential to kill thousands"? It was used in a highly populated area, was handled without any special care, and killed exactly one person.

I also have a brick that has the potential to kill thousands, if you use it repeatedly to crush people's skulls.

r2_pilot

7 hours ago

It has the potential to kill thousands because of the amount of neurotoxin present. Just because the doses weren't distributed more widely(thankfully) doesn't mean they were any less toxic if introduced to other victims.

throw310822

7 hours ago

Yes I know that that is what they mean. If the poison had been neatly packaged in exact doses and administered to each victim in just the right way, it would have been enough to kill thousands. But that's the same you can say of a surprising number of things.

Cheyana

4 hours ago

So it was technically possible, but logistically improbable.

h2odragon

6 hours ago

It could kill thousands, but only sickened the people it was actually (professionally) used against.

Its so secret no one knows exactly what it is, but happily one of the few people around able to recognize it was the person to discover it.

There's quite a lot of open questions around this case that could benefit from further data.

steve_gh

an hour ago

No.

The intended targets were very badly poisoned but survived.

The novichok (concealed in a perfume bottle) was discarded in a litter bin. It was then found by a couple of passers by. One of them died, and one survived.

The potential consequences of this were appalling. Can you imagine the consequences of a couple of thousand chemical weapon casualties in a Nato member, clearly identified as originating in a fairly hostile nation state

user

7 hours ago

[deleted]