US government urges scientists to censor findings on new strain of bird flu

[JockoJohnson]

Hi, this is my first thread that I started. Yay me! And hopefully it can be bi-partisan. Found this little tidbit from my igoogle page under the news section:

Here's the full link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/21/bird-flu-mutation-nationa-security

Here's the portion that I am concerned about:

The papers described experiments in which natural strains of H5N1 bird flu, which do not spread easily from human to human, were mutated to make them more transmissible. The strains were created for research into drugs and vaccines, but if released from their high security containment facilities at university laboratories, have the potential to trigger a global pandemic.

In November, Dr Fouchier told a reporter on the journal, Science, that the strain of bird flu his team had created was "probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make." The journal quoted Paul Keim, the chair of the NSABB, who worked extensively on anthrax, saying: "I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don't think anthrax is scary at all compared to this."

Maybe I just haven't read too many journals but do scientists always create super viruses that could wipe out humanity and we just don't hear about it or is this a more recent thing?

Any real chance of this falling into the wrong hands?

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

 

[Thump553]

I saw that on the evening news last night. You really have to wonder about the thought process that led conceiving of that project, funding it, etc. It would seem to me that the potential risks greatly outweigh any possible benefit. Should it be censored? Damn right, but that is more like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

 

[feralkid]

Any real chance of this falling into the wrong hands?

Uh-huh. In the eighteenth century, no such thing, nada, nothing. No one ever imagined such a thing. No sane person, anyway. Ah! Ah! Along comes this doctor, uh, uh, uh, Semmelweis, Semmelweis. Semmelweis comes along. He's trying to convince people, well, other doctors mainly, that's there's these teeny tiny invisible bad things called germs that get into your body and make you sick. Ah? He's trying to get doctors to wash their hands. What is this guy? Crazy? Teeny, tiny, invisible? What do you call it? Uh-uh, germs? Huh? What? Now, cut to the 20th century. Last week, as a matter of fact, before I got dragged into this hellhole. I go in to order a burger in this fast food joint, and the guy drops it on the floor. Jim, he picks it up, he wipes it off, he hands it to me like it's all OK. "What about the germs?" I say. He says, "I don't believe in germs. Germs is just a plot they made up so they can sell you disinfectants and soaps." Now he's crazy, right? See?