It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The H5N1 bird flu virus could change into a form able to spread rapidly between humans, scientists have warned.
Researchers have identified five genetic changes that could allow the virus to start a deadly pandemic.
Writing in the journal Science, they say it would be theoretically possible for these changes to occur in nature.
A US agency has tried unsuccessfully to ban publication of parts of the research fearing it could be used by terrorists to create a bioweapon.
Health officials are concerned though that the H5N1 virus could one day mutate into a form that could be spread between humans through coughs and sneezes through the air. This could, they fear, result in a lethal pandemic that could spread rapidly across the world killing tens of millions of people. It is only now that a study has confirmed that the emergence of such a deadly virus is theoretically possible.
Researchers have identified five genetic changes that could allow the virus to start a deadly pandemic.
Originally posted by PatriotAct
These mutations are most likely genetically engineered. Maybe even Monsanto funded.
NSABB chair Paul Keim, a microbial geneticist, says he cannot discuss specific studies but confirms that the board has "worked very hard and very intensely for several weeks on studies about H5N1 transmissibility in mammals." The group plans to issue a public statement soon, says Keim, and is likely to issue additional recommendations about this type of research. "We'll have a lot to say," he says.