# Is a Doomsday Virus possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668 "2009-04-28T21:21:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668/21 "2009-04-29T16:35:51Z")
What about Prions? They do not have the ability to infect on their own but imagine they somehow get into the global food supply. I think they are slow enough acting that no one may notice for a long time. When it becomes apparent there is an issue it is too late. Pretty sure there is no cure, at all, and it is invariably fatal with things like BSE (mad cow disease). ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668/22 "2009-04-29T16:47:10Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > Are there any viruses that cause infertility? I’m thinking a ‘Children of Men’ situation. There are bacteria that can do that. Chlamydia and gonorrhea can cause infertility, especially in women. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668/23 "2009-04-29T17:02:39Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > There are bacteria that can do that. Chlamydia and gonorrhea can cause infertility, especially in women. So Paris Hilton will never have kids?? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668/24 "2009-04-29T18:26:40Z")
The Tasmanian Devil disease is actually a rarity: a communicable form of cancer. The only other one I’ve heard of is a form of leukemia in dogs. Bacteria might be more persistant outside a host but they’re more susceptible to antibiotics. It’s unlikely that a 90+% die off superbug could evolve naturally, because it couldn’t sustain itself. Of course all bets are off with an artificially modified disease. I wonder if a killer virus could work by infecting bacteria in the gut and programming them to start making botulinum toxin. The immune system might not be able to even recognize the source of the problem before the person died. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668/25 "2009-04-29T18:46:48Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > That said I think the possibility exists for a very serious pandemic on the order of the Spanish Flu of the early 1900’s which wiped out about 1/3 or so of the European population. That is far from wiping out the human race but pretty staggering nonetheless. The wikipedia page (which I assume is the source) says that the estimated death toll WORLDWIDE was about equivalent to 1/3 of the EUROPEAN population at that time. That’s very different from saying it killed one out of three Europeans. And I suspect that ‘equivalent to 1/3 of the European population’ is using the very highest of the estimated death counts. Not to trivialize it, but while lots of people died, it wasn’t 1/3 of society. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-doomsday-virus-possible/494668.md?page=1)