The technique targets cells infected by viruses and leaves cells without viruses unharmed. But the aim is to kill all viruses. I do not belittle any attempt to get rid of harmful viruses, but the idea that the old good virus is a dead one, may be an error.

The authors write:

Vaccines require a new vaccine to be developed for each virus or viral strain, must be administered before or in some cases soon after exposure to be effective

To overcome [the] shortcomings of existing approaches, we
have developed and demonstrated a novel antiviral approach that
is effective against a very broad spectrum of viruses

Our approach, which we call a
Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Activated Caspase Oligomerizer
(DRACO), is designed to selectively and rapidly kill virus-infected
cells while not harming uninfected cells.

DRACOs should be effective against numerous clinical and
NIAID priority viruses ... We have demonstrated that
DRACOs are effective against viruses with DNA, dsRNA, positivesense
ssRNA, and negative-sense ssRNA genomes; enveloped and
non-enveloped viruses; viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm and
viruses that replicate in the nucleus; human, bat, and rodent viruses;
and viruses that use a variety of cellular receptors

Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Therapeutics
Todd H. Rider, et al PLoS One

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