Bird Flu Research Rattles Bioterrorism Field, page 3

Originally posted by soficrow

H5N1 bird flu is extremely lethal to humans - but not contagious. It doesn't spread easily at all. This scientist created a strain that is both lethal AND highly contagious. He gave a public lecture about his work, and submitted the research for publication in a scientific journal.

One critic, Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert and director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says:

It's just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it's a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it.

A legitimate reason for experimenting with viruses is to stay ahead of mutations and be prepared with treatments for whatever might come along. Sharing scientific information helps keep everyone on the same page, so everybody gets to move forward - no one is duplicating work unnecessarily or wasting time and resources. This approach is cooperative instead of competitive, which is considered better when the main goal is protecting public health versus making profits.

In contrast, competitive drug companies and corporations keep their research findings secret, and protect information as intellectual property - even when their funding comes from governments and the public.

As far as H5N1 bird flu goes - many conspiracy theorists believe it was created purposefully by (a) Western corporation(s) to kill off competition from China and other eastern nations. If true, the strategy was very effective - the poultry industry in India, Vietnam, China and Cambodia was practically destroyed, while the Western poultry industry is flourishing.

As far as bioterrorism goes - anyone with the motivation and high-grade technology needed to develop a lethal strain has already done it. More importantly, even the fundamentalists aren't so stupid as to create a pandemic that will kill off their own people.

In fact, corporations are most likely to indulge in agricultural bioterrorism - they have the strongest motivation, best experts, highest quality labs and easiest access to needed materials.

Agricultural Biowarfare & Bioterrorism

"….the list of possible perpetrators includes corporations, which may have state-of-the-art technical expertise.

…corporations ...could benefit immensely from the economic impacts, market share changes, and financial market effects of a successful biological attack. ...The combination of motivation, expertise, and materials within a single, closed organization is worrisome. Of course, corporations, like countries, would run enormous legal risks if they perpetrated a biological attack, so if they were to choose to do this, it would be expertly designed to mimic a natural outbreak or to appear to be the work of others."

I have to wonder - what's Inglesby so worried about? Bioterrorism or pharmaceutical investments and stock value?

What do you think?

Should scientific research be controlled? Censored? Privately owned?

www.npr.org
(visit the link for the full news article)
edit on 17/11/11 by soficrow because: (no reason given)

What do i think...ALL viruses are man made.

www.reuters.com...

Bird flu was created by man. The H8N1 which is commonly refered to as Influenza, was man made, that has been exposed long ago. The H5N1 was an attept at getting the Influenza to propogate itslef by having the virus mutate and gain the other bird genes. It didn't work.

H = Bird genes, N = Human genes, so it is 8 bird genes and 1 human gene which made influenza. It took time in a laboratory to get it to work but they did it. But the people figured it out, then they tried H3N2 and H5N1 and neither would work on humans, the virus would not mutate, WELL...now it seems they have got the genes to mutate and here we go!!!

There will be another depopulation attempt with this new virus strain!!!! That is for sure!!