With Anthrax mole still on the loose, US plans to circulate Spanish flu...

[The Backlash Cometh]

Put this one under the WTF department. Apparently the 1918 Spanish flu they reconstituted a month ago is now going to get circulated to a wider number of labs than originally thought:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051109/ap_on_re_us/pandemic_flu&printer=1;_ylt=Am8CbJMqXynYZWesU_hStmtH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Here is a snip or two:


There are 300 non-government research labs registered to work with deadly germs like the Spanish flu, which killed millions of people worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will consider requests for samples from those labs "on a case-by-case basis," CDC spokesman Von Roebuck said Wednesday.

Dangerous biological agents are routinely shipped through commercial carriers like FedEx or DHL, following government packaging, safety and security guidelines

<snip>

The agency's decision to consider shipping the virus outside Atlanta was first reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature. Some critics of the recreation of the virus were not pleased to learn of plans to ship the germ.

"Obviously, that contradicts what most people were led to believe when the results of the 1918 experiments were published," said Edward Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project, an Austin, Texas-based organization that advocates more control of biological weapons and biotechnology.

[Taxloss]

1. This makes perfect sense.

The 1918 pandemic was the most serious in modern history. Now we face another. Circulating the Spanish flu to labs is a wise precaution, so that it can be studied.

But that won't stop the OMFG tinfoil brigade turning up in force to push scaremongering MIHOP fantasies on us.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Did you notice how the people who reconstituted the virus thought

it was a bad idea?

[Taxloss]

8. Maybe it was.

But battery poutry farming is an even worse idea and a far greater flu risk than this, and we're still doing it. Those farms are disease paradises.

I'm pleased they thought it was a bad idea. That means they're treating it with the seriousness it deserves.

[jedr]

2. If it's any comfort to you;

Most of us are descendants of those who survived the 1918 flu and should have a natural immunity.

[pinto]

6. (just an aside) immunity to anything is by exposure not inheritance.

[jedr]

7. thanks;

That was sort of a bait post....I often wondered about that.

[Fridays Child]

3. There is no excuse for shipping these materials by any means...

...other than CDC personnel, serving as private couriers.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I thought that was kind of strange too.

May be an urban legend, but it reminds me of the human cremated remains which arrived in a box that had leaked in transit.

[pinto]

9. The Sunshine Project thinks research on 1918 flu has unethical intent,

to put it mildly. They don't seem concerned with an inadvertent loss of live virus, they are claiming some more sinister scenario. Whatever the big picture of the research is, I think it's worthwhile to understand that the Sunshine Project has an agenda. Much of it worthwhile, I assume, but I caution against jumping to conclusions about the purpose of research with this virus. I'm all for objective oversight, though.

Another possibility could be legitimate - health care related - research...y'know? To help develop anti virals? I understand that most influenza viruses are related. Why not research the viral structure of the most lethal flu pandemic in modern history? Sounds like good science to me.


Just sayin'.

[Coastie for Truth]

10. Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls - REAL SCIENCE

(NOT "CREATION SCIENCE" OR "INTELLIGENT DESIGN" OR EVEN "UNINTELLIGENT DESIGN"}

Get yourself a good basic read on modern molecular biology and modern biochemistry. My recommendation (from a course for unemployed computer nerds who wanted to learn modern biochem and biology - and were 20+ years out of school; written for somebody who had college chemistry a long time ago and has forgotten most of it, and hasn't had biology since high school and has forgotten all of it)--->

Lonnie Russell and David Clark, Molecular Biology Made Simple and Fun - the paperback book with Bushco on the cover--->

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Chapter 19 (18 pages) has everything you need to know about viruses, virology, and the immune system.

Chapter 10 (17 pages) has everything you need to know about how biotech pharmaceuticals are manufactured (antibiotics, antivirals, vaccines).

If you find chapter 10 easy - click over to the - this material is directly applicable to converting "biowaste" to gasoline and diesel fuel.

You need the specimens to develop vaccines, verify vaccines, and develop manufacturing processes for the vaccines. Biology and chemistry and biochemical engineering are not electrical engineering -- they are empirical, experimental disciplines.

No tin foil hat stuff - I am a Doc Level Chemical Engineer --- and used to teach the field -- and my first publications were in toxicology and chemical hazards and safety.

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