There have been more than a few people since viruses were first thought to exist around 1915 but couldn't be seen until the 30's when the electron microscope was invented, who have hypothesized that they would be humanities undoing.
https://www.ck12.org/c/biology/virus...f-Viruses-BIO/
I watched a very interesting 2 part series by Ken Burns recently called "The Gene".
https://www.pbs.org/show/gene/
Really fascinating information but one of the things I found most interesting is how scientist can use viruses that have the ability to attack our genes and do harmful things can also be used to deliver "something good" to a defective gene. Did you know that bacteria can be attacked by a virus and has the ability to not only fight it and destroy it but is capable of saving a little bit of that virus and use it against the next virus that attacks it? When some scientist first wondered how this happens and discovered how the heck they did this, the science of CRISPR was invented.
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/23/175948...9-gene-editing
See, bacteria are under constant assault from viruses, so they produce enzymes to fight off viral infections. Whenever a bacterium’s enzymes manage to kill off an invading virus, other little enzymes will come along, scoop up the remains of the virus’s genetic code and cut it into tiny bits. The enzymes then store those fragments in CRISPR spaces in the bacterium’s own genome.
Now comes the clever part: CRISPR spaces act as a rogue’s gallery for viruses, and bacteria use the genetic information stored in these spaces to fend off future attacks. When a new viral infection occurs, the bacteria produce special attack enzymes, known as Cas9, that carry around those stored bits of viral genetic code like a mug shot. When these Cas9 enzymes come across a virus, they see if the virus’s RNA matches what’s in the mug shot. If there’s a match, the Cas9 enzyme starts chopping up the virus’s DNA to neutralize the threat.
So humans are in a race to win a war against viruses before one comes along that we can not defeat.