In 1998 reports claimed that Israel was working on a biological weapon termed as "ethno-bomb" apparently because the country stayed away from signing the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). It's long speculated that the country retains an active ability to produce and disseminate biological weapons at its highly secret and unbreakable installations.
A decade ago, Israeli children wearing gas masks and going to schools hit headlines, while Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) website claimed that they are "the only country in the world that produces gas masks for children." Armed with its biotech research capabilities, Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Ofir Akunis said a coronavirus vaccine would be ready in three weeks and available within 90 days.
MIGAL subsidiary working on Coronavirus vaccine
The Institute for Biological Research (IBR) in Nes Tsiona, a subsidiary of the Galilee Research Institute (MIGAL) is in the final process of developing the Coronavirus vaccine, using their expertise in the past to develop a vaccine against avian Coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV).
Israeli researchers are currently exploring ways to adapt it to create a human vaccine against Coronavirus (COVID-19). The researchers at MIGAL revealed that the genetics of the poultry coronavirus remain highly similar to the coronavirus found in humans and it uses the same infection mechanism.
Israeli minister Akunis is upbeat and congratulated MIGAL on the so-called breakthrough and said, "I am confident that there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat."
