Pokémon's strange beneficial disease is not in Scarlet/Violet

Veterans of Pokémon are probably quite familiar with the strange yet beneficial viral infection that can be picked up by your pocket monsters. Known as Pokérus, the disease has been in Pokémon games for quite some time, and allowed any afflicted Pokémon to earn double the EV (Effort Values, hidden stats that affect the visible stats) points they usually would, with the disease spreading by simply having an affected Pokémon sitting adjacent to another Pokémon in your party.

Well, that disease has been put on the backburner for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, as a datamining Twitter user has discovered that the latest instalments show no indication of the disease whatsoever.

"Pokérus is no longer present in Scarlet & Violet! No assets for the Pokérus status icons exist in the game, and it can not be found on wild Pokémon," said user mattyouhkana.

The lack of Pokérus does go a step further however, as it looks like Game Freak has specifically tackled the disease, as when a Pokémon is forcibly given the virus, it neither gets the usual double EV bonus, and likewise it doesn't spread like it used to.