man made virus with potential to wipe out many millions

[Heruka]

'Anthrax isn't scary at all compared to this':
Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created in research lab

By Daily Mail Reporter

27th November 2011

Scientist responsible is bracing himself for a media storm
Just five tweaks to H5N1 makes it more contagious

Contagious version of bird flu could cause pandemic

Scientists divided over whether findings can be released

A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilisation.
The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.
The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z1ewYobdIc

[ronnewmexico]

I remain to cynical Heruka ..the bush adminstrations big big flu fear of years ago that never did materialize....donald rumsfeld being exceo of the corporation that manufactured tamiflu....he must have made a bundle.

Seems odd they would be so small in things.But I do remember telling this to a political acquaitance when feeling in a very cynical mood...and finding to my amazement it seemed to have not a bit of substance that flu scare.


....so I remain skeptical looking for those who would profit from such things.
And to my personal detriment....I own stock in one company whose stock will double with any flu outbreak of a difficult sort. Down 30 or so percent at present.....no flu scare. Swine flu again I see that a brewing. REal or made up to manipulate stocks....don't know.

I always approach things with the view of total corruption till proven otherwise at present.

[Heruka]

I remain to cynical Heruka ..

ron, i feel like the canary in the coal mine is all.

chirp chirp!

by the time it is to say alarm, all is alarm, the canary is already dead...

so by its very presense the canary is at mercy of things unseen until to late, so cynical and fatalistic, ...lol

or maybe platos cave is better example of reading and passing along the news presented for consumption?

[Heruka]

I always approach things with the view of total corruption till proven otherwise at present.

when i was small, one of my fondest memories of a teacher of mine, a kind and gentle person whom himself as a child had suffered at the hands of polio and was disabled, told me "dont always beleive what you read or are told". that to this day it has always stuck in my mind, and i thank him for that advice.

[Heruka]

i have heard rumours and speculation of such evil in the minds of men, and have only looked glancing at the science, but here is maybe a window into j conrads heart of darkness.

race specific bioweapons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_bioweapon

[ronnewmexico]

I see that thing which will happen as being solely driven as karmic consequence.

Minimal or only health care for the rich, so the poor may not go to emergency room without a big bill and thusly get no treatment and thusly spread their deadly disease.......to others, rich and poor alike...


then is the panademic in america. Is that right now...seems a bit off(Obamacare is a rude boy joke) but still off by a bit.
Time to go yet is my guess.
Globally.....I see not that great a consequence as to the americans. If they succeed in eliminating all free health care in the other countries ....then I see that happening there as well.

Health care is after all in these things a issue of manageing contaigon. Not available for care as all is paid for and we have no money.....then we have a mass mass event...ripe is america but not quite ripe enough.
2013 perhaps, just a guess, depends upon how bad or good things get economically.


When disastor is over....then they reform health care in the US..by necessity as americans only do good things by necessity.

[Heruka]

interesting.

[Heruka]

this is a little on the mouse pox virus that is kept quiet.

from bbc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_t ... epox.shtml

Mousepox carrier
The researchers, based in Canberra, Australia, were hoping to genetically engineer the mousepox virus to produce a contraceptive vaccine to control mouse populations. Instead they made the virus so virulent that it killed all of the mice in the experiment within nine days of them being injected.

Ron Jackson of CSIRO’S wildlife division and Ian Ramshaw from the Australian National University used the mousepox virus as a vehicle for transporting egg proteins into mice. Their experiment revolved around the principle that if they could add a gene, known for its ability to stimulate antibodies, to the mice then they may be able to simulate antibodies against the mouse eggs and so cause the animals to be infertile.

Whilst they were aware that the mousepox virus could cause symptoms in the mice, they believed them to be minor. However once the IL-4 gene was added the researchers were surprised by the totally unexpected result.


Danger
Speaking to the New Scientist magazine, researcher Ron Jackson commented on the potential that the mousepox research might have if it fell into the wrong hands:

‘It would be safe to assume that if some idiot did put human IL-4 into human smallpox they’d increase the lethality quite dramatically…Seeing the consequences of what happened in the mice, I wouldn’t want to be the one who’d want to do the experiment.’

The potential for abuse of this discovery is real but virus expert, Professor Oxford, argues that to prevent all similar research would hinder efforts to tackle disease. Similarly concerns have been raised concerning publishing such findings and the freedom of the scientific press.


Whilst the mousepox virus identified in Australia could not kill humans it does have similarities to the smallpox virus. A report published in 2000 by public health officials’ claims that the US has sufficient quantities of smallpox vaccine to treat between six and seven million people should there be a bioterrorist attack.

In the case of the killer mousepox, the researchers were dismayed to see that the engineered virus was uncommonly resistant to usual vaccines. If terrorists were to use a version of the virus on humans it is questionable how effective the vaccines would be.

[ronnewmexico]

To be clear I see it all as a function of availability of health care.
Basically what exists in that regard is for who can pay in that regard,
Less and less of who can pay and then there is less and less of who can receive service in a panademic.
The sevices in a capitalist only health care environment are based upon cliental with ability to pay not peoples in the population..

So any panademic american health services are instantaneously overwhelmed.
Brits..... countries who do really have health care for all....are suchly much more able to attend to the requirements of a panademic in which very many of the population require treatment. They have a more equally distributed level of health care resource per person.
But also to be clear...nations such as mexico with no health care to speak of nationally(excepting on paper)perhaps china...they also suffer equally to america a panademic.

So karma of a sort. Could be ten years off depends upon in america how things go economically. In america with no job nor income comes no health care always regardless of obama care.

[Heruka]

btw i came across these issues whilst researching the HIV aids virus.

[Virgo]

Whilst they were aware that the mousepox virus could cause symptoms in the mice, they believed them to be minor. However once the IL-4 gene was added the researchers were surprised by the totally unexpected result.

Dumb ass scientists.

Kevin

[edearl]

That the earth now has more than 7B people and modern travel increase the risk of a pandemic. Indians in the Americas had no antibodies for European diseases, and their populations were devastated by disease, and that was before air and other mass transit. It is only a matter of time before another pandemic, it is one way nature decreases large populations. It will be ironic if man creates a pandemic. The world population will crash in the not too distant future for one reason or another; does it matter if the cause is man made pandemic, man made CO2 pollution, the bomb, the Yellowstone super volcano, a huge comet, or something else?

[gregkavarnos]

When yama comes a callin' it don't matter if it's mouse pox, avian flu, global warming, nuclear destruction, getting run over by a speeding automobile, drug overdose, whatever... when it's time to go, it's time to go!

220px-Yama_with_danda.jpg (23.02 KiB) Viewed 365 times

[gregkavarnos]

Just remembered a story:

One day Shiva was meditating in a cave way at the peak of Kailash. Garuda was standing nearby, guarding the cave from intruders. As he was standing there a small beautiful bird happened to approach the cave and perch nearby. Garuda thought to himself: "Isn't this universe amazing? Here am I: enormous, immortal and powerful and here is this bird: tiny, frail and beautiful."

Just that moment Yama appeared on his way up the mountain to visit Shiva. As he approached the cave and Garuda stood aside for him to pass, Yama cast a curious glance towards the tiny bird and continued on his way.

Garuda, knowing full well that a mere look from Yama could mean death for any creature, and feeling a sense of compassion for the bird, took it in his hands and (in an instant) flew to a beautiful tropical jungle where he left the bird far away from the deathly glare of Yama and then in an instant flew back to the cave and returned to his post.

After some time Yama exited the cave and as he was passing by Garuda asked him: "Sorry for bothering you Yama, but I wanted to ask you: Why, when you looked at the bird that was here earlier, did you have a strange look on your face?"

And Yama replied: "Well, when I looked at the bird I saw that the cause of its death would be that it will be eaten by a snake and I thought to myself: That's strange, how is it possible that a snake would be living at this altitude, on this cold and icey peak?"

garuda.jpg (45 KiB) Viewed 335 times

PS Just found the original of the story here http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_garuda.htm

[MrDistracted]

Here's hoping that this isn't the Daily Mail's first accurate piece of reporting.

Although, given what is coming to light about the tabloid newspapers in a judicial enquiry here in the UK at present, their future looks pretty grim with or without this virus.

[gregkavarnos]

Dear MrDistracted,

The only thing that can be said with 100% certainty about the future is that at some point in time you (and me and everybody else) will die.

Have you worked out a plan to deal with that yet?