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Seems to me that toying around with flu viruses doesn't involve that new a technology. With enough willing suicidojihadis available, they can test their germs in humans where it's going to count (who cares if mice get sick?)
Did i read somewhere that the average age of the population is getting too high for the burearcrats sensitivities? Time for a planned "ooops, sorry but that"? Think they wouldn't do it??????
While devastating, the Spanish Flu is hardly a civilization ending catastrophy. 25-40 million people worldwide died because of the Flu in the 1918-19 outbreak, and roughly 20% of the people who caught it died. While viral in nature, many of the deaths were caused by secondary bacterial pneumonia infections, which we can fight with anti-bacterial medications.
And a very stupid one IMO. What are these people thinking?
Yep, someone said this, and someone very credentialed in his field, but it is patently false. The Black Plague was easily the mose important disease pandemic in human history, followed by a number of others more important than the Spanish Influenza.
PS. The smallpox plague of Rome during the reign of Marcus Aurelius was rather consequential as well, and some argue might've indirectly led to the fall of Rome three centuries later. The Plague of Justinian put an end to his quest to restore the full extent of the Empire, and likely paved the way for the later defeat of the Byzantines by the Muslims, who would otherwise have remained a marginal Arabian sect. Also, the Periclean Plague would almost certainly rank higher too. So would the plague that decimated the Aztecs as well as the one that killed the Atahualpa of the Incas before the Spaniards arrived and also the plague that led to the downfall of the Ming Dynasty in China.
on the other hand, I thought that the making of an antidote involved working with the virus itself (i'm in over my head here).
A cargo plane carrying small amounts of flu virus crashed on railway tracks near Winnipeg's city center Thursday, killing the pilot but missing buildings and vehicles, authorities said.----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aw, do not worry!
I'm sure when the plane crashes
carrying this stuff,
the fire will destroy
all the samples on the plane . . .
Trust the scientists . . .
But nuclear destruction by comparison is fairly selective.
This Spanish flu virus is completely non-selective. It will kill Osama as easily as the soccer moms and dads he hates so much.
Yes it is. Because now that we know what it is (turns out it was the bird flu not the swine flu as previously thought) we can work on ways to counteract it.
Nature is the ultimate recycler. What came around once will come around again. Some of us would prefer to have a fighting chance. If you don't like it I suggest that you stick your fingers in your ears and hum really loudly!
Looks like Charles has had one too many.
Yes, it's scary, yes, it's dangerous. But until we know what the Spanish Flu is, we won't have the means of defeating it.
We are on the brink of a bird flu pandemic that has the potential to be just as devastating as the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed anywhere from 50 to 100 million people within a few months. Those most vulnerable weren't the young and elderly. For some unknown reason, healthy adults dropped liked flies. They'd get sick in the morning and be dead by afternoon.
As one who gets whacked every flu season, with the flu shots only being 50% effective for me, I've no doubt if we lose containment of the bird flu and it becomes a pandemic; I'm as good as dead.
My only hope of survival is if scientists decode what made the Spanish Flu so deadly, create mechanisms to defeat it, and disseminate the tools and information to the public before the next pandemic hits.
We are racing against the clock - bird flu has infected over a hundred already and killed half of its victims. It's now landed in Europe and Turkey. Unless the knowledge of the Spanish Flu is released to the world with teams all over the globe trying to defeat it, it's going to get really ugly over the next little while.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I read somewhere that American scientists have also developed nuclear weapons. Ooooh, scary stuff! I guess I'll take my nap now.