Posted on 04/13/2005 6:37:35 AM PDT by Paloma_55
Scientists around the world were scrambling to prevent the possibility of a pandemic after a nearly 50-year-old killer influenza virus was sent to thousands of labs, a decision that one researcher described as "unwise."
Nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries, mostly in the United States, were urged by the World Health Organization to destroy samples of the dangerous virus because of the slight risk it could trigger a global outbreak. The labs received the virus from a U.S. company that supplies kits used for quality control tests....
...The vials also were sent to labs in Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Brazil, France, Germany, Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Taiwan.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Visions of Brad Pitt rolling his eyes and jabbering about the 12 Monkeys keep coming into my mind.
Just imagine if Osama (or some of his friends that have obtained degrees in Bio-Engineering and now work for the Saudi CDC) get ahold of this stuff?!?!?
JFK, LAX, OHare... cough, cough, cough...
There are a few countries on that list that are a concern.
Sounds like an opportunity for Phizer or Glaxo to begin making an expensive innoculation right away.
I noticed. For some reason, Chile even gets a double mention! :)
Probably just as scary is that it went to 5000 of these places. What kind of security could be managed with such widespread distribution?
I doubt that the CDC is going to send people to ensure these bugs are destroyed...or even phone people to confirm it.
Airborn flu is so easy to spread its really scary. A young, healthy 19-25 year old Arab could expose himself intentionally then buy tickets around the US stopping at all major airports and simply hack it up while they are flying and stopping over.
He wouldn't even have to "martyr" himself, beyond a few boxes of kleenex and a lousy week of travel.
Lebanon too?!?! Your thoughts were the same as mine. Idiots.
Sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake, but the Clinton Administration's string of convenient mistakes and bureacratic snafus (e.g. missing billing records, 900 FBI files in hands of a man who no one seems to have hired to work in the White House, etc., ad nauseum) makes me more skeptical about "mistakes."
This mistake is probably a real mistake, but I have learned that we have to wonder.
They already have access to smallpox but haven't done the unthinkable. My guess is that even AQ wouldn't start a pandemic because, by definition, it would kill them, too, and in much larger numbers in that area of the world. More Muslims would probably die than anyone...
Forget about terrorism. It's "Ol' Butterfingers" in the laboratory that's the real threat.
Ol' Butterfingers
We don't make terrorists. we make terrorists effective.
Paging... Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard.
Rip that speaker off the wall and smash it!!!
I know what you mean, but killing people is not necessarily the objective here. They only killed 3000 on 911 but look at what it did to our airline industry and our economy.
Our economy is like a 454ci engine running at 3200rpm.
All you need to do to disrupt it, is throw a little water in the carburetor and then watch it sputter.
If they were to spread an infection like this via our air travel system, sure, it would spread around the globe and even kill some muslims, but it would have a devastating effect on our economy and that is their interest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.