Showing posts with label virus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virus. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Scientific Stupidity

Stupid virus researchers have released a paper in the journal NATURE, and another paper will soon appear in SCIENCE, showing step by step how to change two genes in the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus so that the resulting mutated strain has a 80% mortality rate among humans! These papers were based on actual research conducted in the Netherlands and the US where researchers mutated the H5N1 virus in their labs into a form communicable by air with direct contact! What fools! This show scientific curiosity needs to be tempered by sound moral principles and have limits on what may be done for the sake of seeing if it can be done. If this pandemic ever got out it could literally devastate all life on earth. It would make the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million people look tame by comparison! Imagine if the mutated virus they created had gotten released outside the lab! Do these sorts of mutations using theoretical computer models you idiots!

Nota bene:
I am not against dissemination of ideas, but I am against publicly disclosing such dangerous information in a reckless manner. Al Qaeda can just pick up a copy of NATURE and have one of their researchers start work on a deadly virus. I would prefer the authors of such papers take more responsibility. It's not enough to hide behind "all knowledge should be open" and let come what may.

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