Synthetic Plague: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''While the individual viruses had proven to be non-lethal in testing, [[Mad Scientist|Paxia]] had engineered a sort of genetic puzzle box. When more than one of her viruses infected a host, they assembled the fragmented pieces of a single, labyrinthian genetic code. The genome of a '''plague.'''''|''[[The Greening Wars]]''}}

 

In works that involve these types of diseases, expect an [[Aesop]] about the hubris of man, and the [[Science Is Bad|evils of unchecked science]]. In most cases, those behind the creation of the disease will often [[Hoist by His Own Petard|fall victim to it as well]], either directly or indirectly. Scientists who worked on the original project may cry out "[[My God, What Have I Done?]]"

 

 

A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[The Plague]], and one that can often serve as a form of [[Depopulation Bomb]]. Compare [[Mystical Plague]], [[The Virus]], [[Apocalypse How]].

* In ''[[L: Change the World]]'', Blue Ship, a terrorist group, manufactures an extremely dangerous virus in order to wipe out humanity and restore balance in the ecosystem.

* In the film version of ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', the St. Mary's Virus was a major factor in Norsefire's rise to power. Blamed on religious extremists, it's later revealed that {{spoiler|the government developed it through experiments conducted on prisoners at the Lark Hill detention facility, and chose to attack their own people to create an environment of fear that would cause the people to give the goverment more power.}}

* The [[Hate Plague]] in ''[[The Crazies]]'' was created by the US government as a biological weapon against hostile populations. Then the plane carrying it ends up crashing in a lake used by a local small town for drinking water.

 

* In modern times, fortunately, this is mostly not [[Truth in Television]]. Biological weapons are considered far too difficult to control and too prone to backfiring; the majority of germ research is on how to maintain cures and preventative measures for such things. Chemical weapons are seen as the more practical equivalent for something that poisons an area.

** Note that there are far fewer candidates in Real Life then in fiction. Ebola outbreaks and other quick lethal diseases for example "burn out" because people get sick too quickly to spread it around very much. In a pandemic its speculated that after people start locking themselves at home the transmission would stop from quarantine. Slower diseases conversely are more survivable or treatable. There are still dangerous scenarios, but not world ending ones.

* There is speculation around the world of intentionally modified viruses developed and stockpiled for biological warfare. It typically involves taking an already highly infectious and lethal agent, such as small pox, and modifying it just enough to render vaccines ineffective. No such strain has ever been used, but there have been rumors of the Soviets stockpiling such a version of small pox during the 80's (fortunately, its not around today even if they did; small pox has a self life of only a few years).

 

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