Horror Thought

[ravan]

If you had a secret biolab, and could engineer a plague that would kill everyone over 70, including those nasty politicians who are destroying our world, would you do it?

Everyone over 70, gone in weeks, good or bad.

How about just men* over 70? (* "men" being defined as having a Y chromosome, which could also hit some intersex.)

My mind keeps seeing a young idealist makes a grave mistake, then scrambles to find a cure for his own disease, with the help of assorted oddballs.

Comments

[elf]

The options change drastically if it's a once-and-done virus, vs. it sticks around in the young and waits for them to hit 70. "Get rid of everyone over 70" is a different story premise from "change humanity so that everyone dies at 70."

Depending on how contagious/airborne it is, entire sections of the world might be unaffected. ...Can it be targeted to only hit white men over 70? (Probably somewhat; there's no marker for "race" but there are probably markers for "pale skin" and a few related features.)

Throw in sensitivity/immunity based on various aspects of diet or medications, and it might even be able to target almost exclusively white American men over 70.

...ooh. Countervirus: doesn't cure it, but shifts it so that it only affects people who eat meat. Vegetarians over 70 are safe. Media is full of pundits trying to decide if the virus was engineered by the sugar industry or the corn industry.

[ravan]

Yeah, white men with brain age markers of around 70. The idea would be one and done, but viruses are tricky things. Even if it was ongoing, it would cause a scramble to figure out why some died at 60, and some didn't get it until 90.

Plus, all the white people with Y chromosomes would be scrambling for any evidence that they weren't really white in the hopes it would miss them.

The hunt for who did it and a cure would be a whole go-around of finger pointing and politics, while the old entrenched "leaders" would be literally dying off.