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Originally Posted by RN7
4) Disease: It would have to be one hell of a disease or should we say plague to shut down America. Unlike the Ebola virus for example which broke out in a remote part of Africa and was contained, America is hardly a remote part of the world and it could not be contained from spreading globally due to the massive amount of international travel from American airports. It would invariably spread beyond America in the early stages of the outbreak and become a global pandemic.
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Originally Posted by Rainbow Six
I think any proposed infection serious enough to affect the USA to the extent suggested would inevitably spread worldwide and, as RN7 said, become a global pandemic.
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With the greatest respect, you guys are looking at this with a very narrow focus. The use of a bioweapon doesn't necessarily mean global pandemic. It doesn't necessarily mean wiping the US off the face of the map. Genetic technology right now can do some amazing things. Project the recent rate of genetic advances forward and I'm absolutely certain that by the late 2020s, biowar labs will be able to create pathogens tailored for very specific intended results.
Think of all the possibilities. A disease that is highly infectious but has a long lead time until deleterious effects kick in. You can infect large numbers of people before the authorities even realise there's a problem. It could be tailored to be highly lethal, or tailored to be severely debilitating for just a few days. The country of origin could secretly inoculate it's population well in advance of its deployment.
As I described in an earlier post, what about a pathogen with a high mortality rate but a very short active period due to an inbuilt fast rate of mutation that quickly renders it no more harmful than the common cold? Put it in the water supplies of the dozen largest cities in the US. Even if it spreads beyond North America, it mutates away from lethality within days. No global pandemic, but huge disruption in the targeted country.
Threads like this are an opportunity for us to tailor storylines that deliver us the results we want for campaign purposes. Well in a similar way, genetic engineering can tailor pathogens to have very specific characteristics. I regard it as a very viable, quite believable "deus ex machina" for the purposes of this discussion.