Dutch lab creates highly contagious killer flu
A deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in a laboratory by European scientists – who now want to publish full details of how they did it. The discovery has prompted fears within the US Government that the knowledge will fall into the hands of terrorists wanting to use it as a bio-weapon of mass destruction.
The study was carried out by a Dutch team of scientists led by Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, where the mutated virus is stored under lock and key in a basement building.
Dr Fouchier, who declined to answer questions until a decision is made on publication, said in a statement released on the university’s website that it only took a small number of mutations to change the avian flu virus into a form that could spread more easily between humans.
On Tuesday, federal officials took the unprecedented step of asking those scientists not to publicize all the details of how they did it.
The worry: That this research with lots of potential to help the public might also be hijacked by would-be bioterrorists. The labs found that it appears easier than scientists had thought for the so-called H5N1 bird flu to evolve in a way that lets it spread easily among at least some mammals.
Some scientists are questioning whether the research should ever have been undertaken in a university laboratory, instead of at a military facility.
The US Government is now taking advice on whether the information is too dangerous to be published. “The fear is that if you create something this deadly and it goes into a global pandemic, the mortality and cost to the world could be massive,” a senior scientific adviser to the US Government told The Independent, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The worst-case scenario here is worse than anything you can imagine.”
EU Health Commissioner John Dalli said: “The Dutch authorities confirmed that the virus itself is stored in a very secured way and that the necessary permits were given and that the researchers are bound by a code of conduct.”
Bird flu causes death in 60% of human cases, but only 350 people have died worldwide from the disease to date.
According to the DAILY NEWS BLOG, The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded two research teams, one in The Netherlands and one in Wisconsin in the United States, to carry out research into how the virus could become more transmissible in humans.
The aim was to gain early insight on how to contain the public health threat if such a mutation occurred naturally, but now the NSABB says it wants publication of the studies censored to stop the information falling into the wrong hands.
“It’s very important work that has shown that with relative ease it is possible to mutate H5N1 into a mammal-to-mammal transmissable virus,” said Openshaw.
Wendy Barclay, an expert in flu virology at Imperial College, said stopping the Science and Nature journals from publishing full scientific data from the work would do little more than set an uncomfortable precedent.
“The exact mutations that made this transformation possible were not particularly novel or unexpected so anyone with a reasonable knowledge of influenza virology could probably guess at them if they so wished,” she said.
So, it just might be U.S. funded, and Lo!!! it comes to pass that the U.S. Gov are concerned at this development.
Such hypocrisy and disregard for basic human rights…..
So, let me try to get this right…….
Bird Flu kills over two thirds of the infected humans but can only be passed on by physical contact between the infected birds and man….phew…thank goodness for that……and humans cannot pass it on between themselves…even better!!!
Erm…but someone has funded an experiment to find out why bird flu cannot be passed on by airborne transmission between humans…….but why????? It’s OK as it is, surely?
So now “they” have modified the virus so that it CAN be transmitted between humans, even by sneezing, but also presumably through overhead spraying..
The implications and reasons are obvious to those in touch with the secret agenda, but who has funded this sinister project?
I have tried to trace the funding sources of Erasmus and their vertical and lateral associations, but just meet with a myriad of vague links leading to brick walls.
Does anyone else know how we can identify the source?
Well said, Don. Too bad they can’t “create” common sense. The scientists could use a bit of that instead of hauling us all down the same road the Atlanteans took. CRIMINY!
I’ve been toying with an idea that viruses were created, by a civilization in the past (call them Atlanteans if you want). I mean, look at their structure– they are simply DNA or RNA that is programmed to enter cells and make copies of themselves in a protein shell. They have no useful purpose in nature except to destroy and make copies of themselves…they are not really living things but machines. So, yes, I think you are right, we are taking the same path and repeating history.
This article once again highlights the fact that some scientists play at being God. Should they have modified a virus that has the potential to decimate the human race, who knows. What we do know is that if/should this ever get out, we, humans and all mammal life on the planet could be effectivley wiped out.
Also, thanks for publishing details of where it is held only lacking the security code to get in. Any well trained, armed terrorist group could potentially go in, steal this virus and get on a plane or train to anywhere and infect billions.
I agree…