Ya think?

Okay, this stuff on the coming evolutionary shift really is starting to have me a bit worried. We recently learned that scientists have recreated the 1918 "Spanish" influenza that killed millions.

But it gets worse. The recent articles on it (see below) led me to this story from late 2003.

Read it carefully and follow the logic: they were trying to modify a virus, a variant of smallpox that only infects mice, that could not be vaccinated against. They succeeded. The purpose was to devise a vaccine-proof virus, so they could learn how to kill such a virus. But it was also supposed to be a minor pathogen, typically causing sterility. Instead it was 100% fatal.

So with only minor alteration they created a virus that was 100% fatal and could not be inoculated against. In a lab in St. Louis. On a presumably smallish government grant.

I am all for scientific study, but as Dean says, how long before a Grad student can duplicate this stuff in a garage, and how long before the wrong people get ahold of it....

This stuff is scary, very, very scary...

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.grupo-utopia.com/blog/mt/mt-tb.cgi/950