Question: What virus/disease is most likely to wipe out all humanity?

Natt Day answered on 23 Jun 2015:

Hi,

It’s pretty hard to pin-point which, if any, of the current human viruses are able to become the ‘Armageddon Virus’ (as the media likes to call it). This is because for viruses we already know– we have studied them and with this knowledge we’re far more likely to know how to prevent it being spread from person-to-person and also we’re more likely to be able to engineer a treatment to reduce cases.

It’s far more likely if an Armageddon virus did appear– it would be a completely new virus, never seen in a human before. Many scientists believe that this virus will most likely be one that may only have appeared in animals before but somehow manages the species jump and becomes able to infect humans (which we call zoonoses). If this virus was also highly infectious, easy to pass from person-to-person, had short times from first getting the virus and showing symptoms and then progressing to death– it very well could cause a pandemic and maybe even wipe out humanity.

Natt