U.S. Bio-Security Officials Sound Warning After Scientists Create Deadly New Strain of Bird Flu

[Teh One Who Knocks]

NewsCore


http://i.imgur.com/xi3p5.jpg

The U.S. government is sounding the alarm after reports that Dutch scientists have created a highly-contagious and deadly airborne strain of bird flu that is potentially capable of killing millions, The Independent reported Tuesday.

The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity is currently analyzing how much of the scientists' information should be allowed to be published—given the inherent risks of having the information fall into the hands of terrorists or rogue states.

"The fear is that if you create something this deadly and it goes into a global pandemic, the mortality and cost to the world could be massive," a senior US government adviser told The Independent.

Scientists, too, are questioning whether the science should ever have been performed in the first place.

"There are people who say that the work should never have been done, or if it was done it should have been done in a setting where the information could be better controlled," a source close to the US biosecurity board told the newspaper.

"With influenza now it is possible to reverse engineer the virus. It's pretty common technology in many parts of the world. With the genomic sequence, you can reconstruct it. That's where the information is dangerous."

The mutated form of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza was created by a Dutch team of scientists led by Ron Fouchier, of Rotterdam's Erasmus Medical Centre, and the researchers are now hoping to publish the details of how they developed the new strain.

The new virus differs from H5N1—which is only known to be transmitted between humans who have very close contact with each other—because it can be transmitted through the air in coughs and sneezes.

Fouchier, who declined to answer The Independent's questions, said in a statement that it only took a small number of mutations to change the avian flu virus.

"We have discovered that this is indeed possible, and more easily than previously thought. In the laboratory, it was possible to change H5N1 into an aerosol-transmissible virus that can easily be rapidly spread through the air," he said.

[Muddy]

Yeah I read this earlier.. Im not sure wtf these people are doing...

[DemonGeminiX]

"In the laboratory, it was possible to change H5N1 into an aerosol-transmissible virus that can easily be rapidly spread through the air," he said.

Because doing so was such a good idea.

:rolleyes:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Who sits around an infectious disease lab thinking, "man, this disease is pretty dangerous already, but I wonder if there is a way we can make it super dangerous?" :-k


:|

[DemonGeminiX]

Who sits around an infectious disease lab thinking, "man, this disease is pretty dangerous already, but I wonder if there is a way we can make it super dangerous?" :-k


:|

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/files/2010/11/dr-evil.jpg

[Acid Trip]

Who sits around an infectious disease lab thinking, "man, this disease is pretty dangerous already, but I wonder if there is a way we can make it super dangerous?" :-k


:|

But you have to make it super dangerous before you can make money selling the vaccine.

[JoeyB]

Scientists, too, are questioning whether the science should ever have been performed in the first place.

Science is firmly in the hands of the Frankenstein set. Not those who actually heed the lessons of said novel.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

But you have to make it super dangerous before you can make money selling the vaccine.

I've seen this movie before...it doesn't end well for humans :nono:

[Goofy]

I've seen this movie before...it doesn't end well for humans :nono:

The Crazies? I liked the remake :)





What was the question? :-k

[Hal-9000]

"Scientists, too, are questioning whether the science should ever have been performed in the first place."

not only scientists...


There's only one reason a lab would create a deadly airborne infectious virus...for the military

[Griffin]

if it can be rapidly spread through the air it would seem that it would kill all the birds instead of just a few million.
You know since they fly through it all day long.

[deebakes]

:oops:

[FBD]

Does anybody understand that the reverse engineering process is how vaccines are discovered? Yeah, there's some flukes that come out where the result is worse than what they started with. In that case the shit needs to be locked away in a biosecure lab.

I'm sure yall wont complain about the vaccines (i.e. good outcomes) that result :wavey:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Does anybody understand that the reverse engineering process is how vaccines are discovered? Yeah, there's some flukes that come out where the result is worse than what they started with. In that case the shit needs to be locked away in a biosecure lab.

I'm sure yall wont complain about the vaccines (i.e. good outcomes) that result :wavey:

Yeah, but when you take something that is already dangerous and then make it even more dangerous, you don't publicly announce it to let all the crazies out there know it exists :roll:

[Loser]

Time to pull out the surgical masks and latex gloves :x

[Muddy]

I've seen this movie before...it doesn't end well for humans :nono:

True that, man... I think we need to investigate this shit.. These fucks are over there creating real weapons of MASS destruction...

[Softdreamer]

Time to pull out the surgical masks and latex gloves :x

:dance: that time of year already??? :dance:

[Loser]

:dance: that time of year already??? :dance:

My brother and I were discussing this the other day in fact.

I can think back and say with confidence, I've never had the flu. I've had some pretty horrible colds, but never the flu.

He has had the flu once, it was the one and ONLY time he had a flu shot.

[Acid Trip]

My brother and I were discussing this the other day in fact.

I can think back and say with confidence, I've never had the flu. I've had some pretty horrible colds, but never the flu.

He has had the flu once, it was the one and ONLY time he had a flu shot.

I'm the exact opposite. The one year I missed the flu shot I got the flu and thought I was going to die.

[Muddy]

I got the flu shot for the first time this year, and damn if I havent caught 3 colds back to back this year.. (non flu colds though)

[FBD]

never got a flu shot, never had the flu. fk that shit, I dont need to be injected with the damn virus. if it works for other people, great, let 'em have at it, but I looked at people weird when they looked at me weird for not getting one :lol: like it was a trip to the slushie machine or something!

[Southern Belle]

The one year I didn't get a flu shot, I had the flu in the fall, then again the following spring and developed pneumonia as a result. I've never missed the shot since.

[Hal-9000]

I've had brutal bouts of the flu all my life.In 2005 I had pneumonia twice within 90 days....


I'm on the fence about flu shots.One year I don't even get the sniffles all year long and one year I get 5 different lung infections :lol:
It's funny, in recent years the instances of the flu have been greatly reduced...not sure why.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8JEFY6XL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

[Griffin]

captain trips

[Hal-9000]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8JEFY6XL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

you bastard....I read that book in June of '85...and got one of the worst summer flu's EVER


hal = scared shitless :lol:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8JEFY6XL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


you bastard....I read that book in June of '85...and got one of the worst summer flu's EVER


hal = scared shitless :lol:

The chapter where they go thru the tunnel...still one of the scariest things I've ever read in a horror novel

[Hal-9000]

The chapter where they go thru the tunnel...still one of the scariest things I've ever read in a horror novel

Mine was a passage in the book It....took me a long time before I looked down the shower drain without imagining things down there :lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I read it when I was in 6th or 7th grade. My favorite King book

[deebakes]

my employer required mandatory flu vaccinations for all employees this year...

[PorkChopSandwiches]

That's bullshit. I don't get a flu shot ever

[deebakes]

:shrug: had to do it, or you would be put on unpaid leave until you had it done. one of the problems working for a medical center i guess...

[Muddy]

Porky works at Lowes...

[deebakes]

http://i.imgur.com/U9uwy.gif

[Arkady Renko]

I dunno what the fuzz is about, really. It seems like a good idea to do research in that field because there's a realistic chance that such a supervirus will either be created naturally or in a lab by some crazy people. So I'd rather have "real" scientist start working on a possible vaccine right away instead of starting when the virus is already at large.

Personally, I did get the flu shot the last few years and had neither side effects nor a proper flu, only the odd cold and cough crap. With small children and half of the family working in health care, it seems worthwhile to me. At least the most common strains of flu are covered by the vaccine.