Talk:Morphogenic virus

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[edit] Virus timeline

I've never understood the timeline of this virus. It's clear that it was Odo's return in Broken Link that was used to transmit it. (In fact, that's the only time it could have happened.) But since, on that very occasion, he was transformed into a solid, how did he remain a carrier after that? It doesn't make a lot of sense that as a humanoid he was still carrying a virus engineered for the essential nature of a changeling. Of course, he might have re-acquired it when he linked with the Female Changeling, but as this is never stated I assume that's not how it happened.

The other big question is how the Dominion even knew the Great Link was infected. The Female Changeling began showing symptoms after being cut off from the Gamma Quadrant. There was no reason to believe, or at least no reason to be certain, that the entire Great Link was suffering from it as well. But on the contrary, it seems apparent from dialogue that the Dominion has firsthand knowledge of the Great Link's infection. This is only possible if they discovered the virus quite earlier than is apparent - some time before the mining of the wormhole. That creates several awkward difficulties, though, not least of which is the fact that the Female Changeling would have been knowingly risking transmission of the disease to Odo without knowing for certain if he was already infected. – The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.55.157.50 (talk).