“[W]hat is the most infectious lethal virus which could be engineered and released today”?
Off the top of my head, my first impulse is to upgrade an influenza virus via gain-of-function research. Influenza spreads easily and used to kill lots of people. Plus, you can infect ferrets with it. (Ferrets have similar respiratory systems to human beings.) I don’t think it’s dangerous to talk about weaponized influenza because these facts are already public knowledge among biologists.
Off the top of my head, my first impulse is to upgrade an influenza virus via gain-of-function research. Influenza spreads easily and used to kill lots of people. Plus, you can infect ferrets with it. (Ferrets have similar respiratory systems to human beings.) I don’t think it’s dangerous to talk about weaponized influenza because these facts are already public knowledge among biologists.