"The most terrible virus?" Little Morgan's eyes were immediately drawn to the title. At this time, he had just had lunch and was sitting in a small courtyard full of sunshine, basking in the sun while reading the newspaper. So he suddenly saw such an article in the popular science column of the New York Times.

"What does the deadliest virus look like? Is it because the mortality rate is extremely high, and once it has an attack, it will die 100% and there is no hope of treatment? Such viruses do exist, such as the rabies virus, once it occurs, there is no hope of cure, whether it is sulfonamides, or antibiotics that have played a miraculous role in treating the wounded in recent years, or bitter herbs concocted by sorcerers in Africa and Asia, or holy water of pious priests, everything is useless, and the sick will die 100% of the time, without exception. (To this day, the only recorded case of rabies in the world in the United States has not died from it, and this patient has become a complete idiot because of the virus's damage to the nervous system.) As for the fact that there was no cause of death for this patient, the American hospital where he treated him is also unclear. But this deadly virus has never caused a large-scale plague, for the simple reason that it depends on animal bites to spread by animals and people, and this mode of transmission is naturally very inefficient enough to bring about a great plague that will sweep the world. (So, the so-called zombie virus that spreads by biting people brings about the end of the world or something, which is also just a joke.) ）

Historically, the most difficult modes of transmission to defend against have been airborne and contact-to-contact transmission, and second, through food and water. The former is represented by smallpox, plague, tuberculosis and influenza, while the latter is represented by cholera......

Recently, our doctors discovered a new influenza in Europe, and according to research, we believe that this cold has the potential to become the most terrible virus. As an influenza, there is no doubt about its transmissibility, and according to the two hospitals we have counted so far, this influenza also has a mortality rate of about 0.4% (about 0.1% for common flu). This is a small number, but given the contagious nature of the virus, it could also bring tens of thousands of deaths in the event of a pandemic...... We recommend that in the event of an epidemic of this virus, every household should ......"

"It's funny, what is the purpose of the MacDonald's guy coming up with such an article now?" Little Morgan thought. Macdonald has always studied a variety of infectious diseases, including the flu, which Morgan Jr. knew. After his retirement, Scrooge MacDonald took up the title of professor of medicine at the University of Cleveland, and as the first signatory, he published a number of papers in various journals, although Morgan Jr. did not understand them at all, but he knew that most of these papers were related to viral infectious diseases. Morgan's advisers told Morgan Jr. that the MacDonald Consortium's level of research in infectious diseases is absolutely top in the world.

"The guys who believe in Macdonald are absolutely miscellaneous people who only know money. Are they trying to scare people into selling more stuff through this article? Little Morgan thought, "No, if you are going to scare people, this kind of publicity is far from enough, after all, the popular science edition is at the back of the newspaper, and not every issue is available, and this article is not in a very conspicuous position." It is not enough to advertise and scare people. Don't...... Well, the old man said when he was alive that old MacDonald was a complete hypocrite, and he was always trying to do demonic things, and at the same time dressing himself up as purer than the Virgin......"

"Andronie." Little Morgan said to his secretary, "There's one thing I'm going to ask you to do." ”

"Sir, you just have to give your orders." The female secretary, with her brilliant blonde hair and a delicate face, bent down and gave little Morgan a cup of freshly brewed black tea.

"Dear Andronie, you arrange for someone to go to Yale and ask Dr. Jameel if it is possible, by artificial means, to create a super terrible virus or germ. And with the help of it, create a plague. Morgan Jr. said.

"Okay, Mr. Morgan, I'll arrange it." Androni said.

"No, there's no need to rush it." Morgan said, "Accompany me here to the sun first, this kind of thing, when you remember it these days, you can call someone to say hello." Anyway, this matter is just a momentary curiosity on my part. Morgan Jr. replied.

……

"Man-made plague? Oh my God, how did you come up with such a thing? Dr. Jameel, a professor at Yale School of Medicine, asked as he smiled and shook his head.

"Doctor, it's just a personal interest." The person who asked the question replied with a smile.

Dr. Jameel frowned slightly, although it was a bit of a problem to let a high-level intellectual like him answer such a pediatric question, but considering that the gentleman who asked the question was a representative of a foundation, and many of his own research projects were supported by this foundation, his question was stupid, but it still had to be answered.

"Mr. Bode, man-made plagues have been there in history. In the 14th century, the Mongols used to spread the plague by throwing the corpses of people who had died of the plague into the cities of their enemies with stone throwers. Now, theoretically, as long as a large number of pathogenic bacteria are cultivated, and then projected into the enemy's area in some way, the plague can be artificially created. But Mr. Bode, the influenza you just mentioned is not the right choice. ”

"So, Doctor, can you explain this to me?" Bode continued.

"Ah, Mr. Bode, do you understand the difference between germs and viruses?" Dr. Jameel asked.

"Well, it seems that the virus is much smaller than the germs, right?" Bode replied with a not-so-certain certainty.

"That's true." Dr. Jameel nodded, "One of the more important differences, though, is the culture of viruses and bacteria. Bacteria are bacteria and can be cultivated with nutrients such as agar, but viruses are different, viruses must be in the body of an organism to grow, so it is very difficult to grow viruses. In addition, the influenza virus is even more special. The University of Cleveland is very researched in flu viruses, and their research shows that almost every circulating flu virus is different. There is even a clear difference between the pre-epidemic and the post-epidemic. This shows that this virus is mutating very quickly, and the reason for its mutation, the mechanism of mutation, is currently unknown to researchers in our – and I mean the whole world. So, we don't even know much about how viruses multiply and how they cause disease. So, Mr. Bode, it is almost impossible to create an influenza that leads to pestilence consequences, as you imagine. ”

"I see. Thank you for your explanation, Dr. Jameel. "Also, I have a question, that is, if it is a germ, is it possible that it can be mass-produced and used as a weapon to create a man-made plague?" ”

"Well......" Dr. Jameel was silent, he was a little skeptical that the questioner was really thinking about making such a thing, after all, in this day and age, especially when war is so fierce, people's moral lower limit seems to have been lowered a lot.

"Even if I don't say it, there will naturally be those guys who have no lower limit to tell them, as long as they are willing to give money. Jia maybe, if I say that the difficulty and risk are higher, I will make them give up such terrible ideas. Dr. Mill thought.

"Theoretically, Mr. Bode, it's not impossible, but the risks of doing so are very difficult to control. This risk refers not only to the risk of the technology itself, but also to other social risks. You think that any leak in the course of your research can lead to a terrible disaster. And these things, when used, can also be very difficult to control. The person who unleashes such a devil does not guarantee that he will not die at the hands of such a devil. Because this thing is not like poison gas, its effect is not limited to a certain region, nor is it limited to a certain country, but it spreads among all human beings. This thing is like the devil in a bottle, it is easy to let it out, but once it is released, it will most likely hurt yourself......"

"Ah, Professor Jameel, thank you for your answer. I'm sorry to delay you for so long because of my little personal interest. After Professor Jameel had finished explaining, Bode stood up and said goodbye to Jamil.

……

"Donald, here's a report of the flu virus that has emerged in Europe. You take a look first. Greystone handed the report to Donald.

"I don't read it, I don't understand it anyway." Donald said, "Greystone, just tell me what the hell is going on." ”

"Okay, Donald, according to the report, although the lethality rate of this flu is four times higher than that of the average flu, it is still not enough to cause a great panic. Of course, in the future, this thing may mutate and become more deadly, but it is also possible to become less deadly. Who knows? But, you know what? Grandpa directly intervened, so that our pharmaceutical department began to stock up on antiviral oral liquid materials, and greatly reduced the sales of antiviral oral liquid. (Antiviral oral liquid has already been introduced to the market, and has even been widely used, after all, it is not cost-effective to keep a drug out of the market to make money.) He seemed pretty sure that the virus was mutating in the direction of a higher lethality. Greystone said with a frown.

"Who knows? Maybe it's because Uncle Scrooge has invested a lot of money in this project before, and now judging from the sales of antiviral oral liquid, although it is no problem to recover the cost, it is no problem to make a small profit. But when it comes to efficiency, I'm afraid it's the least profitable of the deals that my uncle has personally managed. So my uncle may be a little unwilling. Donald speculated, "It's more likely, though...... You know, the two of us combined aren't as smart as our uncle......"