[This first part and first section will be an introduction to turning a topic into something else. Which will be a co-theme in this sequence.]
They have declared the world to be in a pandemic. What is the worst that could happen?
"We could all die."
[That would be bad.]
We could all die of natural causes at our appointed times with no one affected by this specific pandemic.
[There is the turn.]
But would that last statement be the worst thing to happen? No one being affected by the pandemic.
It could be. Let us consider something very unlikely.
No one has died from this pandemic. The virus associated with deaths might not be the cause, just an infection that appears when something else is creating fatal conditions.
Sampling only ever establishes "Correlation", not "Causation".
So I return to how that could be "The Worst That Could Happen".
The world has gotten this far into a serious problem, AND THE specialists had it wrong. The targeted virus was not to blame. The vaccine being rushed into production would only expose misdirection, and would not help people from dying.
[To be clear, I am creating wild speculation for literary effect.]
People are dying, so that is something to remember. Compassion is our most valuable resource. Sometimes more valuable than critical thinking.