Re: The Wired article...
Yeah, I think I still have that issue...what was it, "Scenarios"? It looked like it was the supposed to be the first in an intermitent series of specials, but I don't remember seeing followup editions.

Kind of interesting, seeing a (still holding up reasonably well, IIRC) set of predictions for the future along side some ads promoting 8x CD-ROMs as blazingly fast...that one ad with b+w pix of a speed test subject getting his face shoved back by the wind.

If memory serves: The fictional superbug article you're mentioning (cured by long distance collaboration in a VR that let researches play with molecules like they were tinkertoys) had the extra symptom that in its most virulent stages patients tended to sprint around wildly, maximizing the spread. I think the disease had a nickname like "the running man fever" maybe? Also had memorable images (photoshopped? Or just repurposed from some other news article) of a quarantined plane set ablaze, and corpses bobbing in brackish water. And then a "swatch" line of colored chemical suits. In the end they find a cure and distribute vaccinations via McDondalds.