Artificial viruses are deadly and humans cannot resist if pandemics happen

It's just an artificial virus, but so it will become dangerous if it comes out.

Clade X - an influenza virus outbreak from laboratories in Germany and Venezuela - is one of the most dangerous viruses in history. It has some characteristics borrowed from Nipah virus in India. And within a year, the virus killed 150 million people.

Fortunately, Clade X is not a real virus, and the story we just talked about is a simulated version made by American scientists. All to verify what will happen to the world if such a disease really happens.

But even though Clade X is just a fantasy story, the fear of a human disease that cannot be turned away is completely real.

Clade X is not a real virus.

When biotechnology stresses science

Recently, scientists from the US military have made an assessment, ranking the threats from the most advanced genetic editing tool currently available is CRISPR . Technology allows to change, collage extremely detailed life forms, and it can completely catastrophe if used for bad purposes.

"Bio-synthesis technology itself is not bad. The concern here comes from its applications," said Michael Imperiale, a microbiologist from the University of Michigan.

What this technology can do is really cause concern. As of 2017, a group of scientists in Canada has angered the community by completely recombining the DNA of the horsepox virus, which has long been extinct.

Although this success may aid vaccine and cancer research, the scientific community believes it will put the world at risk of smallpox infection again.

According to Imperiale, the genetic code of animal viruses can be found very easily on the internet, and now easily synthesized, the ability to regenerate dangerous viruses is entirely possible.

"The technology that allows it to be done is now true" - Imperiale shared. "Although you need expertise, it's not difficult to make it."

Another concern from this technology is the ability to make existing bacteria or viruses more dangerous. For example, what about some "tap" individual trying to improve bacterial resistance, altering the mechanism of poisoning, or making it immune to the current vaccine?

Or even, the set can become extremely dangerous, if modified into pathogenic bacteria with the ability to spread from person to person.

Possessing highly accurate gene editing technology, people are holding a dangerous weapon.

Is fiction or a real threat?

Although it sounds like fictional screenplay, experts judge that these are purely real dangers, especially when human knowledge of synthetic biology is gradually being revolutionized.

"Some dangerous applications are still just in theory. But if you really dig deep into research, nothing is impossible, and the danger is entirely possible" - Imperiale warned.

However, this does not mean Clade X will appear in the near future. Creating a new virus has many obstacles, so a Clade X-type biological disaster will hardly happen - at least in the present context.

"Improving an existing virus requires many factors, and of course it is difficult, so it is not a major threat at the present time" - quoted in the Imperiale report. But this does not mean that people are subjective, because if such a virus is created, the disaster will be huge because humanity is not prepared in time.

The study is published in the Biodefence journal in the Age of Synthetic Biology.