Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAGbPF1_jdo
The division has a very interesting story so a friend and I decided to start posting what we know about it and what is happening. Personally, I found the spread of the Green Poison to be very interesting so I did some research into its origins and why it turned out to be so deadly. If you are unable to watch the video, green poison was lethal as it was due to combination of factors.
1. Amherst had easy access to research as well as the genetic libraries of multiple different pathogens which allowed him to create Green Poison without a partner which kept his efforts secret. Technology also allowed him to take bits and pieces from the genomes of H1N1, swine flu, Ebola, Marburg, dengue, and Hantavirus to modify his strain in a multitude of ways.
2. Because of this access, he was able to modify green poison to be contagious even while incubating so it spread when people didn’t even know they were infected. Compared to real world examples, the fact that it spread while incubating in a host allowed the virus to be as lethal at it was. This is because by the time it killed an individual, it had already spread to a significant amount of others.
3. Once people started showing symptoms, the symptoms imitated the flu. This, combined with the fact that he released the virus at the beginning of flu season, and smallpox was considered to be eradicated, caused a failure of containment and treatment.
4. Due to the decreased incubation period, a significant amount of people got sick at the same time. Additionally, because medical personnel also got sick due to inadequate quarantine precautions the medical infrastructure quickly collapsed.
5. Even once smallpox was determined to be the base strain of the virus, the changes made by Amherst made current vaccines useless in treating the infected. Those who could also have organized research and development into a possible vaccine could also be assumed infected making it difficult for an organized effort to be made.
6. When people were finally organized to create a vaccine, the increased inherent genetic drift of the virus made it difficult to create a vaccine due to the number of different strains.
7. The delay in containment, treatment, and creation of the vaccine combined with the changes Amherst made ultimately caused Green poison to be as widespread and lethal as Amherst wanted it to be.
There is a big difference between having a genetic decode and understanding the genetic decode. One of the first organisms to get its DNA mapped was the fruit fly. They will still be studying it for decades to come.
The other misconception perpetrated by TCTD is that live sample testing is still essential with any genetic modification. The idea that all you need is one mad man with access to mapped DNA and a 3D printer to kill a billion people is laughable. What Amherst did would have required hundreds of very smart people and an enormous budget and who knows how much time.