"Hard" in evolutionary terms means that there are dozens or hundreds of steps, which are individually very unlikely, compounding to the improbability of them ha

"Hard" in evolutionary terms means that there are dozens or hundreds of steps, which are individually very unlikely, compounding to the improbability of them happening. Evolution solves these things by brute force, but only if there is an evolutionary pressure. "Pandemicity" is at best an accident, from an evolutionary standpoint, and so is lethality. Both happening at once, thus, is very hard. An engineer could arrive at a solution faster, given that he knows the steps. But knowing which steps to take is actually the hardest part of synthetic biology.