Designing the properties of a biological agent that could wipe out 90% of the population without being stopped

I'm interested in coming up with a plausible agent of destruction, virus or fungus or engineered weapon or what have you, that could conceivably wipe out a majority of the human race. What physical attributes should it have in order to do maximum damage without being stopped by the authorities? The survivors would be those immune to it.

Based on some research I've done, the agent would need to have the following:

• Be airborne, to make it easier to spread
• Extremely contagious - very easily passed on from person to person
• Longer incubation period - if the agent kills too quickly, it'll be contained easier
• Symptoms which are not too extreme and could be confused with the signs of a lesser, more benign illness
• Resistance to antiobiotics - maybe biofilms?

I'm basically looking to flesh out the above, with some plausibly concrete numbers. i.e. how long would the incubation period be ideally, what kind of defense it would have against antibiotics etc.

posted over 4 years ago

Space_Cadet‭

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