US creates new lethal viruses

A scientist funded by the US government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of the smallpox virus, through genetic engineering.

The new virus kills all mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.

The work has not stopped there. The cowpox virus, which infects a range of animals including humans, has been genetically altered in a similar way.

www.newscientist.com...

This comes two years after the U.S. defeated a Germ Warfare Treaty.

www.commondreams.org...

This the real dangers in genetic engineering. Do they really expect us to believe that Bush won't jump at the chance to weaponize any advancement in genetic engineered viruses? How can they pass up something that has a 100% kill rate?

Your tax dollars..hard at work.


[Edited on 29-10-2003 by kukla]

Not suprising to hear that. The russians have been waist deep in that line of work ever since their involvment with creating smallpox vaccinations for the US.

Tip of the iceburg
gah sorry, can't post long url addresses. ABCNews has a page about russian smallpox stash, but they took down the page. You view this page under Google's cache while it still lasts. Search google for this string "Russia's Smallpox Stash" and it will be the first hit you recieve. Just view cache instead of clicking the link.

[Edited on 29-10-2003 by MrRadicalEd]

Don't forget the Japanese, who have re-engineered the Bubonic plague! Among other things...there is China.

This is really nothing new, germ warfare has been going on since the first decomposing body was flung over castle walls in the Midevil days. Only difference today, is that we can manipulate how these viruses first start out.

Agreed, this is not a new development. But this research can be weaponized to be ethnic specific.

Cowpox infects people, but Buller says the IL-4 protein is species-specific and would not affect the human immune system. The experiments are being done at the second-highest level of biological containment.

Yes, this kind of thing can be weaponized to be ethnic specific...until it mutates! THEN, we have an even B I G G E R #in problem. And that my friends, is lack of foresight and common freaking sence. Who knows, maybe this is all in Gods plan to wipe out humanity as we know it. If that is the case, keep developing this #, because I am all about getting rid of 99% of the worlds population, if it rids us of our most despicable brethrin. The world would be a better place if humanity started all over again, don't you think?

Yes, I know, a bit on the "extreame" side.
But give me an example of todays world that is not extreame.

[Edited on 29-10-2003 by ADVISOR]

Advisor,

hear hear!

I hope they take out all the socialists and communists first. Since they are the ones that cry the most about this stuff while 'their' countries work the hardest to produce it in the shadows.

Mom's gonna put it back the way it outta be...

Learn to swim....

That's one way to look at it. Humanity 2.0 will face the same issues that we're facing now. We'll have to figure it out sometime and I would prefer we get it right this time around.

Some progress would be made if the U.S. would be a good neighbor and sign the germ warfare treaty and respect the other signed treaties.

But with Bush & Co... that's not an option.

*paging James Cole*

Why are we to believe that the other guys are observing the treaty in the first place?

Maybe they began to cheat and that is why the US had no recourse but to cheat also?

Just asking questions, don't know all the facts in this issue.

Progress comes in incremental steps. Getting the treaty on the books would be a start. We can work on enforcement later.

Good example of international treaties actually working is the CFC ban..while it's still produced in developing countries, the treaty has reduced CFC emissions by a large margin.

This leads back to my previous post..even if we "format'" and "re-install the OS"..we're still going to have the same conflicts.

Like I said before, this will all come back and bite us in the ass.

-Dagger

Messing with germs, and biological agent sis not a good idea! Nto for anyone. Nt for the people it is used against, not for the people making it. If something is very very virulant, and just 1 case of it gets out, thats all that is needed for world wide decimation.

Originally posted by DaRAGE
Messing with germs, and biological agent sis not a good idea!

Nto for anyone. Nt for the people it is used against, not for the people making it. If something is very very virulant, and just 1 case of it gets out, thats all that is needed for world wide decimation.

Thats so true, I agree w/you comepletly.

-Dagger

nothing scares me more then biological warfare,if there is ever an outbreak within the US i dunno what the # ill do,id rather die then be infected with some un treatable virus

Originally posted by ADVISOR
If that is the case, keep developing this #, because I am all about getting rid of 99% of the worlds population, if it rids us of our most despicable brethrin.

Ummm...Hate to burst your bubble, but the 1% of people that are despicable are going to be the ones to isolate themselves from it & use it on the other 99%...US! Any type of new weapon is used that way...It's as much of a fact as that of history repeating itself.

Originally posted by kukla
This leads back to my previous post..even if we "format'" and "re-install the OS"..we're still going to have the same conflicts.

Yeah, we need to do some *serious* debugging...Preferable to also find a way of doing that debugging in an "isolated" system.

Originally posted by DaRAGE
If something is very very virulant, and just 1 case of it gets out, thats all that is needed for world wide decimation.

This is why I mention the idea of trying to "debug" this coding out of the program in an "isloated" system...If this error crashes out the "main" system, there won't be anyone left to perform any more "debugging"...

Originally posted by hipfish
nothing scares me more then biological warfare,if there is ever an outbreak within the US i dunno what the # ill do,id rather die then be infected with some un treatable virus

The problem is that, in order to avoid it, you'd have to seal yourself in a completely processed & filtered environment for (at the minimum) decades (if not the rest of your life)...This would mean living on processed & filtered air, water & food in a small, confined cubbyhole. The big problem is...Guess who are the only people to be able to afford setting up reasonable living quarters under such conditions...That's right, the very *same people* who use *our money* to fund the research for that $#|+ and then give the orders to *use it on us*!

reminds me of the short story I remember from hs about the rich people during the bubonic plague. They locked themselves in a castle isolated, but guess what, they got it too. a bit ironic if you ask me.