October 30, 2003
Terrorist Government Developing Super Viruses
From the New Scientist:
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.
The new virus, which is about to be tested on animals, should be lethal only to mice, Mark Buller of the University of St Louis told New Scientist. He says his work is necessary to explore what bioterrorists might do.
But the research brings closer the prospect of pox viruses that cause only mild infections in humans being turned into diseases lethal even to people who have been vaccinated.
As The Speculist says: A legitimate government has no use for this. It is a tool for terrorists.
Posted by Steve on October 30, 2003Agreed. Have you seen the movie "28 Days Later" yet?? Creepy...
Posted by deb at October 31, 2003 8:43 AMI haven't seen it yet...but just watched the first 6 minutes here. Now I'll have to watch the whole thing.....
Posted by Steve at October 31, 2003 9:05 AMI think calling the U.S. government a "terrorist government" is irrational, though I'm sure there are numerous factoids that can be trotted out to support the claim.
Here I'm repeating a comment I posted at The Speculist:
a caveat: i am neither advocating this work, nor claiming that it's necessary.
if those terrorists develop such a capability and we don't understand how it works, then we will be less able to defend against it.
it certainly is possible that some wacko is funding this development with the thought that we should have it as a weapon. however, it's also possible that the funding agencies (primarily the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, see link below) want the research to lead to the development of new vaccine technologies etc.
i do not know enough about the technologies involved to say.
link: http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2001/01/08/daily9.html
Posted by chris hall at November 2, 2003 12:05 PM
