Science is Fun!

[plutherus]

Ya know, I'm as pro-science as anybody I know. More than most people I've met.
And I love biotechnology. The very thought of hacking the source code to life itself, what could be cooler?

But, well this just doesn't strike me as a particularly good idea.

I mean, it's one of the deadliest plagues ever to spread among mankind. It pretty much defeated the combined military might of the entire world and did more than anything else to bring about the end of World War I.

And now we can re-create it in the lab.

Hey, what could possibly go wrong?

Comments

[31seel.livejournal.com]

The public health risk of resurrecting the virus is minimal, U.S. health officials said. People around the world developed immunity to the deadly 1918 virus after the pandemic, and a certain degree of immunity is believed to persist today. Also, in previous research, scientists concluded that modern antiviral medicines are effective against Spanish flu-like viruses

Now that reassures me.... Perhaps images of the scientists working with the virus sans protective gear would be more in order...

Unfortunately, this experiment does pass my two question test....
Q: To what end?
A: Preventing a viral plague.

Q: Who benefits?
A: Everyone.

Though I am unsure about the outcome of a full Risk Assessment... Didn't you take a class on that?

[plutherus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed that too:
people around the world developed immunity...

Ya know, people around the world are immune to Aids, too. And, just about every other disease known. How many people is a big question, though.

The...risk...is minimal U.S. health officials said. Which health officials? Were they appointed by Bush? Are they young-earth creationists like his head of the FDA?

a certain degree of immunity

How much is "a certain degree"? 1% of the population immune? 2%?

is believed to persist today

Believed by who? Do they have any reason for this belief? Or are they just taking it on faith that God wouldn't do that to us?

Didn't you take a class on that?

Well, yeah, but it wasn't a very good class :)

I'd like to see the actual data, but since I can't do anything about it even if I did, I guess I'll just trust that the people in charge of it know what they're doing. After all, the protection has to be at least as good as the protection on the smallpox virus, and hardly any of that went missing, right?

[whpingboy.livejournal.com]

have you read the book "The Hot Zone" I find my self much less worried about something that our species has survived, versus something that our only recourse is to quarentine all infected and watch them bleed out, then steralize the area and hope noone heard about it.

Ebola will cleanse the Earth :D

[whpingboy.livejournal.com]

BTW - We have samples of this bug in Virginia , San Francisco, and in Georgia. If one of these samples broke out, it would take less than a month to engulf the country. with a 3 to 5 day cycle (infection - liquifying your organs) and the first noticable symptom is a fever and runny nose.which lasts two thirds of the cycle.

have a nice day

[31seel.livejournal.com]

You know, my mom told me about a fatal dog flu going around right now...