Mirror phages could help reduce the biomass of mirror bacteria in the environment (perhaps substantially), but they couldn’t drive the mirror bacteria to extinction, fully sterilize a contaminated area, or prevent the initial invasion of an environment. I’d therefore be reluctant to call mirror phages a ‘safeguard’ as opposed to something that is helpful but inadequate on its own. (mirror phages as a potential future therapeutic are discussed in Chapter 5, section 5.3, page 117 of the technical report, mirror phages as environmental countermeasures are discussed in Chapter 8, section 8.6, pages 188-189)
Also ‘immune to all our antibiotics, viruses, and immune defenses’ isn’t quite right. Some antibiotics are achiral or racemic mixtures, and certain parts of our immune system might still attack mirror bacteria (e.g. some parts of the complement system).
Mirror phages could help reduce the biomass of mirror bacteria in the environment (perhaps substantially), but they couldn’t drive the mirror bacteria to extinction, fully sterilize a contaminated area, or prevent the initial invasion of an environment. I’d therefore be reluctant to call mirror phages a ‘safeguard’ as opposed to something that is helpful but inadequate on its own. (mirror phages as a potential future therapeutic are discussed in Chapter 5, section 5.3, page 117 of the technical report, mirror phages as environmental countermeasures are discussed in Chapter 8, section 8.6, pages 188-189)
Also ‘immune to all our antibiotics, viruses, and immune defenses’ isn’t quite right. Some antibiotics are achiral or racemic mixtures, and certain parts of our immune system might still attack mirror bacteria (e.g. some parts of the complement system).