I think that when you look at both the properties of the virus (fairly long-tailed inhibition period, large proportion of carriers not displaying any symptoms,

I think that when you look at both the properties of the virus (fairly long-tailed inhibition period, large proportion of carriers not displaying any symptoms, being infectious even after becoming healthy yourself, life-long consequences even for people who survive, aerosol spread and so on) and the results so far (the human lives + medicine systems of so far only a few countries + The Next Big Depression), it is not 'a fairly dull viral weapon'. Sure, if you think of it in terms of being a weapon, it's not an armageddon weapon, but very few madmen want those anyway.