No, Tabloids, We're Not All Going To Die

This time it's The Sun saying that the Mars sample return mission will unleash an alien virus and, of course, we're all going to die.

So, here's a few reasons to relax:

1. All samples will be studied in a full biosafe facility. They can't be sterilized before returning them because that would destroy the stuff we're looking for.

2. It's highly unlikely anything in the samples will be alive anyway, due to the heavy radiation. Any remaining life on Mars is going to be pretty deep underground.

3. Anything that evolved on Mars, even if it had a common ancestor with Earth life, is going to be far enough away from us that it is highly unlikely it will be pathogenic.

So, no, not much chance of a Space Plague <tm>, as much as SF authors love them.