Amid the fear and intrigue surrounding the coronavirus, people are downloading a simulation video game in which players use real-time strategy to spread a deadly outbreak around the world. The video game's developers warn people not to take the game too seriously and to seek advice about how epidemics travel from authoritative sources. The coronavirus has sickened more than 4,500 people and killed more than 100. The illness originated in China before moving to other parts of the globe, including the USA. Plague Inc. is an 8-year-old app and PC game in which users play the role of a disease intent on infecting the world with a pathogen.

By no means am I a master, but on my 23rd try, I created the perfect conditions to eradicate the human race. First I zombified humans; another time, apes contracted the simian flu and gained self-awareness. On the 23rd attempt, I went old school with a simple germ. I even gave this ultimate pathogen a name. As Bob spread from person to person, red dots cropped up all over the world map.