Timeline for Could a virus be genetically modified to target a specific human population?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
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| Feb 1, 2016 at 22:50 | comment | added | Jay | @Philipp RE any stock bioweapon: Or a good old-fashioned bomb. I suppose a bioweapon would have the advantage that the infected could spread the disease to the larger community. But unless the community you want to target is very insular, you'd be infecting many non-members at that point. | |
| Feb 1, 2016 at 22:12 | comment | added | Jay | Side note: The idea that white people deliberately infected the Indians with smallpox is probably an urban myth. Many historians have published articles saying that it is unsubstantiated. For example, quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/…. The Indians WERE decimated by smallpox, but there is little or no evidence that it was deliberate rather than an accident. | |
| Feb 1, 2016 at 21:56 | comment | added | Philipp | Or much simpler: release a short-living bioweapon in places of worship of the faith you want to target. But that would be kind of lame because any stock bioweapon would do in that case. | |
| Feb 1, 2016 at 21:50 | comment | added | Philipp | Regarding targeting by religion: one could engineer a virus which is only deadly when the infected person consumes some kind of food or drink which is taboo according to the faith of the engineer. | |
| Feb 1, 2016 at 16:33 | history | answered | type_outcast | CC BY-SA 3.0 |