Just saying that it can be done is enough to get others to start looking. There are good arguments for the research but not one for its disclosure.

This is a case of just because you can do something does not mean you should do it. Creating this highly contagious form of a deadly flu virus was completely irresponsible. There have been far too many instances of bugs escaping from laboratories to see this type of research as acceptable. The next step should be to destroy all existing samples of this deadly virus and ensure that the information on how they mutated the virus so that it became airborne should never be published. Any notes on how they accomplished this should be locked away with extremely limited access and should never b placed on any computer that connects to any outside networks or the internet. The likelihood of networked computers being hacked and the research getting out is just far too great. A pathogen like this could easily kill hundreds of million people in our highly mobile global society if it ever got out. This is because the fatality rate for those that contract the virus in it's current non-airborne form is about 50% and there is no reason to believe that this airborne strain is any less lethal, and likely could be even more lethal.

@xscharm - The Chinese looking into this would not surprise me, but I highly doubt that the Indians or the Israelis would since they are signatories to the bio-weapons non-proliferation treaty.

The problem now is, whether by human hands or by natural mutation, we know the strain can be produced. We must move forward with the research so we can develop vaccines to fight this and other strains that may occur.

@JS - didnt the US sign that treaty too???

I guess the biggest concern I have, is for the safety of all these "mutant birds" they are testing this bug on. How cruel! Isn't being a mutant to your species insult enough?

I am sure that all of you actually read the papers on this flu strain and are therefore informed enough to comment.

FYI--the flu was mutated by passaging it in ferrets. What this means is that it naturally acquired the mutations in the animals. Basically, these same mutations could happen in nature anywhere H5N1 exists. Also, just because this results in a strain that is easily transmissible in ferrets doesn't mean that it will do the same thing in humans. Even if it was dangerous to humans, would you rather have this happen in nature and not have any idea how to approach controlling the strain or have scientists study it in the lab so that we can be better prepared to deal with it when it does emerge?

By the way, you have a much better chance of dying by being attacked by a shark or from a coconut dropping on your head than from a lab-escaped virus.

And the point is? The window of opportunity for the virus to get away hasn't closed, the research about what can be done if the mutation does occur, or get away, has stopped. What does that accomplish? These clowns created it, they need to immunize the public now, not in a few months.

By the way, you have a much better chance of dying by being attacked by a shark or from a coconut dropping on your head than from a lab-escaped virus.

:-)) Thanks for the laugh!

May I add:

By the way, you have a much better chance of dying by being attacked by a shark or from a coconut dropping on your head than from a lab-escaped virus OR a naturally occuring mutation of that virus.

...they need to immunize the public now, not in a few months.

That's what the chemtrails are for...

Humans will eventually kill themselves off trying to know everything about everything.

.

UnitedStates1776

- Best comment ever.

...Did you miss dropping atomic weapons on another country over 60 years ago? We've been tinkering with things much more dangerous than bird flu for a long, long time now.

It might also help to note that they are doing research in order to combat a naturally-mutated strain of bird flu that could potentially kill millions upon millions all over the world. Should they just sit around, cross their fingers, and pray that it never happens knowing full well they could be making us more prepared to fight a pandemic of that nature?

When they were testing the different types of atomic bombs. The scientist were not sure if it could ignite the atmosphere or not... But they still did it, many times...

When they were building the EU 'super collider'. The scientist were not sure if they could control the 'black hole' they wanted to make... But they still did it...

The scientist are currently drilling into methane hydrates. They are not sure if they can control any resulting 'mud volcanes' or other incidents... But many countries around the world are currently doing it, including the US-DOE in Alaska...

The mile deep chasms torn into the sea floor near Iceland, were made when volcanic lava ignited these methane hydrates. In other words it could end life on earth as we currently know it...

But we trusted the scientist when they said nuclear power was SAFE to build next to the sea and major fault zones... Ha! Ha!

BTY - The up-side to methane hydrates???

Just in the US Continental Shelf, there is enough energy in methane hydrates to power the USA for 500+years...

And I can make a lightbulb glow for 2 seconds if I eat Taco Be......

Blame it on the human condition, dad. Otherwise, we'll be executing everyone who has a college degree, teaches or even wears glasses. Look up Stalin sometime. Hype and politics are already fueling the distrust of anyone with a PHD.

Science often lacks morals or ethics

I'm somewhat confused as to why you wrote this. The issue is whether making the information public can pose a danger to society or not.

Calling the publication unethical or immoral is like calling Alfred Nobel unethical for inventing dynamite. Explosives have an important and legitimate purpose in mining and construction, but should we blame the inventors if unscrupulous people use that invention for unethical purposes- namely to harm others?

Calling the publication unethical or immoral is like calling Alfred Nobel unethical for inventing dynamite...should we blame the inventors if unscrupulous people use that invention for unethical purposes- namely to harm others?

Yes. If the invention can obviously be used for mass murder, yes.

Einstein was one of the most villainous creatures who ever lived -- the counterpart of Hitler. Better if he'd been still-born. He knew exactly what he was creating and did it anyway for his own ego. May he burn in hell.

May Einstein burn in hell? Einstein didn't invent the A-bomb! Hundreds of physicists worldwide were investigating the nucleus in the early 20th century. When Enrico Fermi succeeded in obtaining the first nuclear reaction (which are not evil, by the way - that's how the sun works) Einstein went to Roosevelt, determined to insure that free societies would not be taken by surprise and wiped out by Nazi bombs.

No thing is good or evil in and of itself - it's only the use a person puts it to that is good or evil.

I might add that there's no difference between a foolish scientist and any other type of fool. There's a fool in all of us.

Odd how you think he had nothing to do with it, when he, himself said:

"Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger."

I try not to vilify groups, but I believe it will be not the terrorists but the arrogant geeks who kill us all.

Einstein did NOT invent the atomic bomb and had next to nothing to do with its research and development. Einstein's involvement with the atomic bomb was limited to the following two items: (1) Einstein's famous formula E = mc^2 gives us the ability to predict the energy yield of an atomic bomb but is in no way instructive on how to build one or how it actually works (i.e., the chain-reaction nuclear fission of heavy elements into lighter elements), and (2) The letter he wrote to Roosevelt warning Roosevelt that the Germans did have a nuclear program underway, including the fission experiments of Otto Hahn of the Kaiser Willhelm Institute, and they most certainly would have succeeded in building an atomic bomb had it not been for successful military strikes on the facilities at Telemark. Einstein warned Roosevelt that this was a race we did not want to lose. It was bad enough that the US and UK lost to the Germans the race to build cruise missiles (the V1), heavy-lift liquid-fueled rockets (the V2, essentially the same rocket that sent our first astronaut Alan Shepard into space), and jet aircraft.

@jerri-1

You're really missing the point. There's a difference between making a weapon that's only use is to kill and technology with a legitimate purpose that isn't intended to be used as a weapon but could be.

accentogringo is right in saying Einstein has nothing to do with the research that went into its development. Einstein wrote to Roosevelt exhorting him to make the bomb before the Germans did.

And it's those "arrogant geeks" who are responsible for Germ Theory, MRI machines, CAT scans, cancer therapy treatments, HIV therapy, vaccines, computers, the internet, Atomic Theory, Quantum Theory, PCR (and hence DNA testing), antibiotics, LCD screens, plastics, engines, motors, operating systems, just to name a few.

No thing is good or evil in and of itself - it's only the use a person puts it to that is good or evil.

The end results of the first two uses of atomic weapons against human beings perpetuates nothing BUT evil. And all of those possesing this power would unleash nothing less than absolute and final evil if and /or when they choose to use this technology.

Obviously there are near infinite fantastic discoveries, inventions and baubles allowed us by the use of science and the technology to utilize it, so I almost agree with you completely!

Peace

Being a senior student in Mechanical Engineer and on my last semester with a great respect to the Physics and Mathematics, it somewhat angers me very very much when someone says that Einstein was responsible for the A-bomb. How ignorant can one be?? Oppenheimer lead the group of physicists in the Los Alamos project and Einstein was not one of them.

May all religious people burn in hell, after all, religion has condemned more people to death, then all of the tinkering around with science ever has.

If it wasn't for science, people would still be dying of plague, or Polio, Small Pox, etc. Yes some of the things we invent can do horrifying and terrible things to humans, but keep in mind, human ignorance has killed many more. How many people died from bacterial infections until the discovery of Pennicillian? How many people died because of Cholera due to insanitary conditions around fresh water supplies.

Facts are that we are better off knowing about the things that kill us, and how to prevent them or fight them, than being ignorant of it.

You naive fool - don't you realize that the military ARE RUN by the space alien bird-men??

We're already here. Now you must be eliminated.

i am a "space alien bird-man". i am coming for your birds (didn't you see Paul?)

The world needs a good virus to take out about half of the population. I do realize that it may mean my own life if it happens in my lifetime but I will die anyway and maybe the survivors can get it together if they get a re-boot.

Dogma,
Can I have all of your stuff if you die in the pandemic and I don't? Thanks!

Ironically enough the lead researchers initials are RF. Hmm, don't like the way this playing out.

Dogma,
Can I have all of your stuff if you die in the pandemic and I don't? Thanks!

Sure... Can I have yours if you die and I don't...?

Sure it's being watched. Watched by some security firm that got the job because they were the lowest bidder.

"watched by some security firm that got the job because they were the lowest bidder..." and whose operations personnel, like the staff over at TSA, works there because they couldn't cut it in fast-food.

If by watched you mean locked away in a BSL-3 lab which can only be accessed by the highly-educated researchers who have gone through hundreds (if not thousands) of training hours and background checks in order to work on it...then yes.

Thank you. Somebody with an understanding of genetics and virology posts a sensible answer.

With modern techniques it's quite certain that many very ugly man made bio-warfare agents are already out there. Remember the anthrax letters that Dick Ch...I mean, that rogue lab scientist that ended up dying sent after 9/11?

The bugs to fear are not the ones being openly researched and printed about by journalists. The guys in this story are conducting important and potentially life saving work.

The CDC is not the only the group of people doing vaccine development research. Researchers in universities (and private corporations) all over the world are working on developing vaccines for various pathogens. Vaccine development is not the only justifiable reason to do research on pathogenic organisms. It is important to study all sorts of questions to better understand the replication cycle of the virus, how it enters, which cellular proteins the virus combats in order to sustain a transmittable infection, etc...These are all questions that are important for developing antiviral drugs and vaccines and understanding the real threat of each individual pathogen.

Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Al Gore, and the POTUS wholeheartedly agree with you.

If only at least 1% of the world populace had good common sense, and the rest got wiped out by this flu virus, that 1% would be more than enough to sustain the human race indefinitely afterward. 1% of the now 7 billion, means 70 million, where as the minimum, lowest possible minimum for a possibly sustainable race is a few hundred thousand with a balance of genders, where as a few million is minimum to be healthy, so 70 million is sustainable, healthy, and likely strong, especially of that 70 million is made up of those with good common sense, as they could likely get to one place together faster than the geniuses among the those who died, and some geniuses do have good common sense. Stephen Hawking for one, he's a genius, but thinks First Contact with an alien race is a very bad idea, because just as good and bad humans exist on Earth, it is likely the alien who returns our messages into space for First Contact could just as easily be malevolent as be benevolent, comparing the former to Native Amercas of the Western Hemispher's First Contact with European Explorer, Christopher Columbus. The vaccine they want to develop as a defense may work and it may not, the latter more likely if suspension of vaccine research goes, a rushed researched vaccine in the face of a pandemic is far less likely to work than one researched and developed before the pandemic hit.

2012 is supposed to be a year of "transition" for the Human Race. Let's hope the "New World Order" doesn't plan to release the Bird Flu to make those predictions come true.....

Aspergers much, Daniel D????? LOL

"Let's just stay with the nukes." Fine idea, if we would just use them once in a while.

Glad I'm not the only one thinking that. Saw it too.... I will not be shaking hands for a while.

I won't be hangin around with any ferrets with runny noses, myself!

You'd also need to kill every bird on earth. It travels in migratory waterfowl.

DewBlossoms,

You are correct, but not many people hang-out with these fowl and breath the fecal dust...

No, I was wondering the same thing myself.

yep, was wondering the same thing myself. The only problem is I am not really sure I want to know. It makes sense to me that scientist would be trying to figure out how to destroy deadly viruses.. not create them. That is just damn scary if you ask me.

My daughter is a Chem/Bio Engineer and she worked for a company manufacturing vaccine...

Her explanation was, "You have to engineer a similar virus that is easily duplicated. If you want to manufacture a vaccine."

They also need to research what the next expected mutation is going to be. Then they can produce the needed seed materials to the manufactures that make the vaccines...

This type of seed material is held by labs through-out the world, so they can be prepared, when the need arises...

BTY - The shortage of vaccines during the early 2000's in the USA was because the MAJORITY of the worlds vaccine manufacturers had left the USA. After Clinton's debacle with forcing them to sell at cost and still be held liable. This also resulted in the USA being unable to obtain the needed seed materials...

There was a reason that Bush Jr was paying vaccine manufactures to return to the USA and the US Gov paying for the new facilities. Research Holly Springs, NC & US Gov vaccine facilities...

The mutation is going to occur, do you want to be prepared or behind the 8-ball???

Manufacturing time is usually measured in years, though some new processes take only months. The slow part is the development of the seed materials...

If you knew what the US public was faced with during the last decade. That is the scary part and the US Gov/Politicians were the CAUSE...

So it has to be an airborne virus to work on a vaccine? Do they even have anything close to a vaccine for the non airborne version? That seems like a good place to start research.

Which pretty much proves that you can have a PhD and still be a complete imbecile.

Did you at least get a patent on your pneumatic ball-kicking machine? There might be a market for it in Australia. I remember seeing a documentary a few years ago, I think it was called "The Simpsons", about a machine they use in Australia for the punishment of misdemeanor offenses called "The Boot". Perhaps they might be interested in your ball-kicker for more serious offenses. Such as wasting bandwidth on public forums.

"Which pretty much proves that you can have a PhD and still be a complete imbecile."

You're right Crying Shame, it also has proven that just because a certain President of the USA went to Yale University, doesn't mean he is not a totally senseless moron.

Read this about the current Harvard graduate and his wife...

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/early_obama_letter_confirms_inability_to_write.html

And most everyone was being so good and keeping within the discussion...

Atchoo