Pathogen effectiveness in episode "Collective"

[marsh8472]

JANEWAY: A pathogen.
EMH: A space-borne virus that adapted to Borg physiology. It's inert now, but in its virulent state it attacked the drones and killed them.
TUVOK: Why weren't the juveniles infected?
SEVEN: The maturation chamber is designed to protect developing drones. Malfunctions caused by the deaths of the adults led several of the chambers to open prematurely.
TUVOK: Does this pathogen only target the Borg?
EMH: The Borg, and other cybernetic organisms it encounters. You're not thinking of using it as a biological weapon?
TUVOK: If we can revive the pathogen and reintroduce it, we could neutralise the drones without harming the away team.
EMH: Neutralise? You mean murder, don't you? Captain, they're children.

I'm wondering how effective would the pathogen had been if Voyager had opted to use that rather than the events that ended up playing out in the episode? We learned in episode "Child's Play" that Icheb was genetically engineered to produce this pathogen. I would think he would be immune. He was also in a small Borg collective with the other Borg children. That leads me to believe that the children were already being exposed to this pathogen from Icheb and if that pathogen could affect them it would have already.

Leaving the question about whether the plan to use the pathogen in order to save the hostages would have worked or not?

 

[Refuge]

Good reasoning. Icheb I guess was a carrier, not sure if that means the other Borg children were safe but it seems they were.

(Like your avatar!) You know they didn't waste much ethical time considering genetic or germ warfare on Voyager. Janeway, even Seven, didn't object to such tactics being used on Species 8472. Suspiria dodged a toxic 'bullet' too. Federation policy maybe?

 

[Sophie74656]

I believe they said or maybe it was implied that the maturation chambers protected them from the pathogen.

I'm not sure if Icheb would be affected by it or not but I have no doubt that Janeway would have used it as a weapon

 

[marsh8472]

I suppose even if the children were immune to the pathogen the pathogen may have destroyed the Cube the same way it destroyed the unicomplex in episode "Endgame" with perhaps the hostages being beamed out before it exploded