When first encountered, it quickly killed those not strong enough to withstand its effects. Those that survived discovered that their animal companions were carriers of the affliction. Some gleefully brought their infected beast into major population centers, leaving the streets strewn with the bones of the deceased.
Most evacuated to the countryside, some voluntarily set up quarantine zones and warned travelers to stay away. Others rushed to try to heal those infected, but to little avail. It took the World of Warcraft’s (WoW) programmers nearly a month to finally put an end to the “corrupted blood” plague. More
While the highly infectious effect was never intended to become a plague upon their players, epidemiologist found the event fascinating and discussed its similarities to a bioterrorism attack. Here
“It took the World of Warcraft’s (WoW) programmers nearly a month to finally put an end to the “corrupted blood” plague.
Let me guess: They built a wall.
That Time an Accidental Plague Nearly Killed Everyone in World of Warcraft
An imaginary disease, affecting imaginary inhabitants, of an imaginary society on a made up planet.
I’m sure this brought us all insights not otherwise available on our plane of existence.
Biological warfare is too unpredictable to be used effectively. Even if you prepared a vaccine before releasing a pathogen, there is no guarantee that it will not mutate beyond the vaccine’s ability to protect. There also is no guarantee that your target population will react to the selected pathogen in the way anticipated. Humans are far too complex to accurately predict how a disease will progress.
That being said, there are plenty of individuals and rogue states that think it is worth pursuing, even acknowledging the complications and limitations. Now, I don’t know that we would be able to notice a difference between a weaponized pathogen and a natural pathogen, if one were ever released. The response would be the same. That is what is truly frightening.
@ACParker January 2, 2019 at 10:30 pm
> That is what is truly frightening.
More frightening than the people on the right side of history yearning to exterminate people possessed of badthink? And ninety percent of people possessed of badthink yearning to do, absolutely, anything to make the people on the right side of history happy? (As if anything ever can make them happy.) Worse than an airborne hemorrhagic fever with a ninety percent mortality rate? Being carried from megalopolis to megalopolis in commuter jets? Really? Imma hasta math that out. Quick guesstimate, looks like I should root for super Ebola, over the republic. (How’s that for “Can’t we all just get along?”)