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In reply to the discussion: What We’re Afraid to Say About Ebola [View all]paleotn
(18,171 posts)Some points irritate the hell out of me though. If only news types and the chattering class in general had spent more time in the Science building and less in English building at the ole alma mater, I'd have a hell of a lot less irritation.
In 2012, a team of Canadian researchers proved that Ebola Zaire, the same virus that is causing the West Africa outbreak, could be transmitted by the respiratory route from pigs to monkeys, both of whose lungs are very similar to those of humans.
Kobinger and his teams 2012 paper in no way "proved" anything. I hate that word "proved" in this context. It just shows the incredible lack of science education in this country. It was not the same strain responsible for the current epidemic. Their study suggests that in certain circumstances, one particular strain of Ebola with no documented evidence of infecting humans but is deadly to other primates, might be transmitted airborne from pigs to macaques. To date there have been no corroborating findings that have replicated this particular route of infection, swine to primate. Could there have been some yet unknown cross contamination? Who knows? In further research, Kobinger hasn't been able to show any potential airborne transmission macaque to macaque. Is it something about pigs that makes this particular Ebola strain prone to possible airborne transmission? Again, no one currently knows.
http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ebola-may-go-airborne
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/airborne-transmission-ebola-unlikely-monkey-study-shows
The rest of the article is good. This is one very novel and damn scary scenario when it comes to Ebola infection in humans. Could the particular strains involved in this epidemic mutate to some airborne form, easily passed human to human? Possibly, but who knows? For all practical purposes, it's out of control in West Africa and we're at the mercy of probability. This could have been stopped in its tracks, but our powers that be in the West either quibbled or ignored it.
Can it still be brought under control? Who knows? But some pretty draconian solutions come to mind. I doubt seriously if any of our leaders have the political will to implement anything the least bit repressive, so again, we're at the mercy of probabilities with respect to viral evolution.
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