Monday, November 28, 2011

Controversal Flu studies demonstrate potential danger

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/scientists-brace-for-media-storm.html

QUOTE: Fouchier's paper is one of two studies that have triggered an intense debate about the limits of scientific freedom and that could portend changes in the way U.S. researchers handle so-called dual-use research: studies that have a potential public health benefit but could also be useful for nefarious purposes like biowarfare or bioterrorism. 

QUOTE #2:  Some scientists say that's reason enough not to do such research. The virus could escape from the lab, or bioterrorists or rogue nations could use the published results to fashion a bioweapon with the potential for mass destruction, they say. "This work should never have been done," says Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who has a strong interest in biosecurity issues. 

It is frightening to consider that for all the good things technology has brought us it has also opened up more than one "Pandora's Box".  I am concerned that one way or another an Influenza outbreak is one of the more likely disasters we could face one day, so I strongly recommend you take precautions in advance

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