Post by longtimebooster on Jun 30, 2014 6:35:22 GMT -8
www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/opinion/anthrax-thats-not-the-real-worry.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
Discuss.
Sorry, moderator -- couldn't resist.
Experiments with contagious, virulent flu strains have been taking place in labs around the world, financially supported largely by the American, European and Asian governments, and more are planned. These experiments use flu strains like H5N1, which kills up to 60 percent of humans who catch it from birds.
Scientists use ferrets to study these viruses. From the perspective of flu infection, ferrets are very similar to humans. Scientists pass the dangerous flu viruses from one ferret to another to “train” the viruses, in a genetic sense, to spread. The goal of these experiments is to see what gives a flu virus the potential to create a pandemic.
The problem is that such experiments themselves risk spreading virulent flu in the population, and even causing a pandemic.
Discuss.
Sorry, moderator -- couldn't resist.
Experiments with contagious, virulent flu strains have been taking place in labs around the world, financially supported largely by the American, European and Asian governments, and more are planned. These experiments use flu strains like H5N1, which kills up to 60 percent of humans who catch it from birds.
Scientists use ferrets to study these viruses. From the perspective of flu infection, ferrets are very similar to humans. Scientists pass the dangerous flu viruses from one ferret to another to “train” the viruses, in a genetic sense, to spread. The goal of these experiments is to see what gives a flu virus the potential to create a pandemic.
The problem is that such experiments themselves risk spreading virulent flu in the population, and even causing a pandemic.
