How long will it be (if ever) before a typical bio-science Ph.D will have the capacity to kill, say,a million people?
I certainly think there is a considerable risk, as bio-engineering becomes routine even in smaller labs. One could rely on brute force methods, like creating an array of random compositions of influence viruses for example, attempt to infect a few people, hope something sticks(selection). And then several different strains with non-overlapping surface antigens—you get no overlapping immunity—emerge from your batch, instead of one super pathogen.
I certainly think there is a considerable risk, as bio-engineering becomes routine even in smaller labs. One could rely on brute force methods, like creating an array of random compositions of influence viruses for example, attempt to infect a few people, hope something sticks(selection). And then several different strains with non-overlapping surface antigens—you get no overlapping immunity—emerge from your batch, instead of one super pathogen.