Lab designed superflu

http://rt.com/news/bird-flu-killer-strain-119/

anyone heard of this before? what the hell was the point of making this?

  On 1/16/2013 at 8:46 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

what the hell was the point of making this?

To make shitloads of money when an antidote is required.

nm

humans are shit, what other species tries to find ways to kill itself off?

Interesting ethical questions abound! Does science have a role to play in the controlling of information (already answered by dogma: yes it does), and what is that role? Does the role include moral and ethical boundaries, and if so, what are they? Who enforces these ethical considerations?

And furthermore, is publication even necessary for this research to be dangerous? We live in the information age, it won't take long for wanted information to make its digital rounds, published or not.

I imagine the research was done to see if it was possible, but we'll never know until the paper is out, lol.

Don't worry too much about this - far worse biological weapons are no doubt conceived behind industry doors, and they don't have any reason to tell us they've researched it.

Jesus Christ man. Modern scientists are pushing boundaries that don't need pushing. In terms of physical health, I suppose we've been doing just fucking peachy on Earth for some 100,000 years. Fucking fools have hyped up the horror of "death" to such a degree that we can justify any sort of fucked up research that might help prevent it, even creating new viruses. This is honestly scary man. How long does it take, once you've handed a fraction of the human population a bunch of deadly weapons, to have an accident, or an intentional use of that weapon? I know this shit is going on constantly behind closed doors. But I don't really understand it. I can see why a Sudoku master would find the most fucked up epic sudoku puzzle a riveting challenge. But scientist's are taking their masturbatory intellects too far by putting people's lives at jeopardy. Just because you can open a door, doesn't mean you should, especially when you know there's a monster inside. The modern intellect is very interesting. I think it's harming itself. It's too glitchy. Our cosmology is misinforming us. Things are backwards here.

wow, another man made virus. big deal. just another to throw onto the pile of other bioweapons weve made over the years.

If they can make a super flu perhaps then they can figure out better ways to attack such a thing if/when it naturally mutates and does threaten to wipe out lots of people.

Maybe someone uses it for bad or make people rich but in the distant future maybe when we are all dead our successive generations will use our technologies for maximum good. Maybe the lab perfected superflu is released and it kills off most of the population then the surviving humanity will probably have immune systems that kick ass and there are worst things that could happen to our planet, like another Pamela Anderson movie.

probably going to set it free in africa.

Good thing I got my flu shot.

During her two decades at The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry. She watched drug companies stray from their original mission of discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead become vast marketing machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. She saw them gain nearly limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs. She sympathized as the American public, particularly the elderly, struggled and increasingly failed to meet spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Barney And Friends: Revenge of the Dinosaurs, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become–and argues for essential, long-overdue change.

  On 1/17/2013 at 12:26 AM, happycase said:

Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Barney And Friends: Revenge of the Dinosaurs, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become–and argues for essential, long-overdue change.

lolwut

I really feel like the book "Oryx and Crake" is our future. Great book. Terrifying concept though.

Fuck the Flu. I can handle the fucking flue.

Is it really that far fetched to research the odds with which a virus could mutate into a killer virus? It's not about its existence in a lab, but about the ease with which this development could actually take place in nature. And yes, this made developing an anti dote possible.

Some of you have been watching way too many movies, imo.

Yeah, it's old news as you can see from the date of the RT piece that was from 2011. There have been arguments for and against this kind of research since that in science publications. I haven't really bothered to follow the discussion.

The Wikipedia article on H5N1 has this info about the publication of the research:

  Quote

After Fouchier offered an article describing this work to the leading academic journal Science, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) reviewed the manuscript together with one submitted to Nature by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin describing related work, and recommended against publication. However, after much delay, the NSABB reversed its position and recommended publication of revised versions of the two papers.[65] However, then the Dutch government declared the results to be a strategic good and required Fouchier to apply for an export permit. After much controversy surrounding the publishing of his research, Fouchier complied with Dutch government demands to obtain a special permit[66] for submitting his manuscript, and his research appeared in a special issue of the journal Science devoted to H5N1.[67][68][69] The paper concludes it is entirely possible that a natural chain of mutations could lead to an H5N1 virus acquiring the capability of airborne transmission and setting off human pandemic H5N1 influenza.[70]

  On 1/16/2013 at 9:01 PM, pattern recognition said:

humans are shit, what other species tries to find ways to kill itself off?

Fuck mang, ain't you seen Meerkat Manor?

It is my understanding that nature would have made such a flu in the future regardless. We brought the worst of the future to us sooner, to be analyzed before it could surprise us.

Science has always held a tremendous and daunting power over us. It can save us or kill us by the millions. Its all about our true intentions. Ultimately it isn't the virus we should fear, but people. Does greed and corruption overtake us or do we use our knowledge to better ourselves and relieve ourselves of our primary evil, the struggle.

  On 1/16/2013 at 8:46 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

what the hell was the point of making this?

b/c its cool like pew pew laser gun pow bang ratatat boom go yeah

The lethality was not studied obviously with humans. The tests were done with ferrets.

From the Science news piece here:

  Quote

But Webster says the results were presented in a way that confused NSABB. He says that the experienced virologists involved in NSABB's discussions—including himself—should have pushed harder to clarify those results and emphasize that lethality in ferrets does not necessarily predict lethality in humans. When the lethality data finally became clearer in the months after the NSABB's initial recommendation, many members say they began to reconsider.

Also even the ferrets did not die from airborne infection:

  Quote

In fact, however, none of the ferrets had died from airborne transmission; six ferrets that had the virus squirted directly into their trachea all died. But that outcome is “not very relevant” for evaluating the virus's risk, Fouchier notes, because that's not how humans or animals typically contract flu.

fair enough bringing it down back to earth.

i guess my next question then is why Russia Today insists upon unnecessary spinning of this into an article which seeks to do nothing but inspire fear and encourage panic in its readers.

  On 1/16/2013 at 9:01 PM, pattern recognition said:

humans are shit