OP/ED: Flu Researchers Slam US for Hoarding Data, page 1

posted on Sep, 21 2005 @ 11:21 PM

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The scientific journal Nature reports today that flu researchers are slamming the US for hoarding critical data - and the damage control boys are working over time, trying to shift the blame onto China.

www.alertnet.org
LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Influenza researchers are being hindered in their work by the United States' disease control agency's reluctance to share data, according to the journal Nature. ...Its Thursday edition reports widespread concerns that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not making enough flu data available.

"Many in the influenza field are displeased with the CDC's practice of refusing to deposit sequences of most of the strains that they sequence," Michael Deem of Rice University in Houston, who works on predicting flu vaccine efficiency, was quoted as saying. ...One evolutionary ecologist, who declined to be named, said: "Getting data from them has been somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible."

Nature said that of about 15,000 influenza A sequences in the gene database Genbank and the influenza sequence database at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, fewer than a tenth were deposited by the CDC.

Springer Bites: Accepts Damage Control at Face Value

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

It's the old distract, disinform, and shift blame shuffle. Ho hum.

Most likely, what we're seeing here is yet another policy of benign neglect. Scientists like Rachel Carson, David Suzuki, Stanley Prusiner, and more have been warning people for half a century that an unprecedented Super Flu is coming. The counterspin said, "Don't worry. Be happy," and told everyone to "think positive."

Well, despite all that positive thinking, the Super Flu is here now. And it's not China's fault.

WHO Refutes Claims Bird Flu Originated in China
english.people.com.cn...
www.chinadaily.com.cn...
insidecostarica.com...
bird-flu-news.newslib.com...

Here's a quick overview of hard scientific and political/economic information about bird flu available right here on ATS:

Flu Vaccine Technology: Who's Blocking its Use?

WHO Pushes for Bird Flu Vaccine Production

Bush Pushes Wrong Flu Vaccine to American People

Bush Signs Quarantine Orders for Bird Flu

Government Plans for Flu Epidemic: Update

Military Says Terrorists Might Use Bird Flu as Bioweapon

Threat Analysis: Genetically Engineered Stealth Bio-weapons

Humans Included in the 6th Mass Extinction?

Edit: sp.

[edit on 21-9-2005 by soficrow]

[edit on 9-22-2005 by Springer]

blanketgirl

posted on Sep, 22 2005 @ 09:27 AM

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Is it possible they aren't sharing the information so that it doesn't get into the wrong hands?

It seems to me a lot of the problem with the new flu viruses is also the possibility that they are man made, and that somebody is tinkering with them so they are deadlier.

It creates an odd balance, if we share the information, it can be used for both good and bad causes.

soficrow

posted on Sep, 22 2005 @ 09:37 PM

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Originally posted by blanketgirl
Is it possible they aren't sharing the information so that it doesn't get into the wrong hands?

Yep. That's the argument. But then, why demonize China, for example, by claiming they don't share their info?

...Currently, most scientific research is privately owned, protected by Patents and Intellectual Property Rights laws, and NOT shared - including the technology to mass manufacture vaccines quickly. Getting access to the info, or the rights to use the technology, costs BIG bucks. Which is why it's not happening. But hey - life is about profit, right?

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