I haven't watched the show, but your description just made me think about the "panacea". Virus-wise, I was obsessed with the idea of the DRACO antiviral concept for years.[0] It's really unclear why funding was pulled for it.

Then again, the idea behind "28 Days Later" was that everyone got a cancer vaccine and turned into zombies...

[0] https://riderinstitute.org/discovery/