Bird Flu Apocalypse: A How-To Guide
On one side of the world, bird flu claims the life of an Indonesian infant. On the other side of the world, the scientific journal Nature publishes research explaining how to modify H5/N1 flu viruses in ways that may eventually facilitate human to human transmission of the deadly viruses. (PDF Download)
Nature
Influenza viruses are modified naturally by spread within and between birds, pigs, and other animals. Some of the natural modifications make it easier for humans to contract the virus, and others make it more difficult. Likewise, human to human spread is facilitated by some natural viral transformations, and inhibited by others.
The ability to intentionally modify a deadly virus, to make it more contagious within and between human populations, suggests that we may be entering an entirely new phase in human bio-warfare. Nature's editorial staff debated the issue prior to the decision to go ahead with the publication of the risky research.
More from Fox News:
It was never possible to completely prevent such knowledge from being discovered and disseminated. It was only a question of whether the knowledge would become public, or would instead be classified by government biowarfare divisions.
When these common but deadly viruses are finally weaponised -- which is virtually inevitable -- we will all have something more to worry about.
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
Influenza viruses are modified naturally by spread within and between birds, pigs, and other animals. Some of the natural modifications make it easier for humans to contract the virus, and others make it more difficult. Likewise, human to human spread is facilitated by some natural viral transformations, and inhibited by others.
The ability to intentionally modify a deadly virus, to make it more contagious within and between human populations, suggests that we may be entering an entirely new phase in human bio-warfare. Nature's editorial staff debated the issue prior to the decision to go ahead with the publication of the risky research.
More from Fox News:
Bird flu is lethal in people and spreads among those who are in close contact with infected birds, but so far, the virus known as H5N1 has not had the ability to pass easily among humans through sneezing and coughing, and some scientists had begun to doubt that that was possible.
The studies by Kawaoka and Dr. Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands changed that view by proving that with a few genetic mutations, the virus could pass easily among ferrets, which are used as a close approximation of how a virus might behave in people.
"There are people who say that bird flu has been around for 16, 17 years and never attained human transmissibility and never will," said Malik Peiris, virology professor at the University of Hong Kong.
"What this paper shows is that it certainly can. That is an important public health message, we have to take H5N1 seriously. It doesn't mean it will become a pandemic, but it can," said Peiris, who wrote a commentary accompanying Kawaoka's paper in Nature. _Fox News
It was never possible to completely prevent such knowledge from being discovered and disseminated. It was only a question of whether the knowledge would become public, or would instead be classified by government biowarfare divisions.
When these common but deadly viruses are finally weaponised -- which is virtually inevitable -- we will all have something more to worry about.
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
Labels: apocalypse now, epidemics
posted by al fin at 12:00 pm
5 Comments:
Nuclear weapons of mass destruction require thousands of scientists, engineers, and technicians, enormous facilities, and national-level funding. Biological weapons of mass destruction require a few dedicated people and a basement lab. The world will end not with a nuclear bang but with seven billion people coughing their guts out.
Possibly so.
For leftist greens, such a viral apocalypse is consistent with their dreams of a great human dieoff (see vhemt.org). These greens would like to eliminate 90% to 95% of human beings from the planet. But they haven't actually thought their ideas through to the bitter end.
First of all, if they believed in their dieoff dreams, they would have already eliminated themselves, as a gesture of their sincerity.
And there are those greens who imagine a world where everyone except those who think like themselves are gone. They never seem to consider that if that were true, most of the practical people who keep the infrastructural wheels turning would be dead. Which means that they themselves would likely starve or die of some other mundane cause rather soon after.
These pathetic losers -- many of whom are academics, attorneys, government bureaucrats, journalists, activists, or lifetime grad students -- remind me of feminists who wish for all men to die off. But if all of the objects of their hatred were dead or exiled, their societies would collapse around them for lack of skilled operation, planning, and maintenance.
This is the only example of research results that I just assume would not be published. However, since it is now published and public knowledge, I'm not about to pass up downloading and reading the paper when the link is so conveniently provided for me to do so.
Thanks,
And there are those greens who imagine a world where everyone except those who think like themselves are gone. They never seem to consider that if that were true, most of the practical people who keep the infrastructural wheels turning would be dead. Which means that they themselves would likely starve or die of some other mundane cause rather soon after.
Just like the greenies left in the South American jungle at the end of Tom Clacy's "Rainbow Six" novel. I absolutely loved the ending of that novel.
Guy Mchpherson is one of those greenies.
You've got to be kidding me. it's not even behind a paywall.
what a horrific violation of scientific ethics.
We may not agree on much, alfin, but in this case the only thing that we might differ on is the punishment that should be meted out on these morally inept morons. I say life imprisonment, for willful negligence and attempted murder of 7 billion civilians. You might favor worse.
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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