Unlike Joe Biden's hair which is dead but which he insists is alive.
I would like to point out that all VIRUSES are dead to begin with. It is only in the presence of 'food' that they 'activate'. They're similar to vampires.
By the description these are lyophilized (freeze dried) samples and there is some possibility they could still be viable. This process is used with bacteria as well and is how bacterial and viral samples are shipped to other research facilities. The writer uses the term storage room but I doubt very much that this was some broom closet.
This might be useful since the concept of smallpox being truly eradicated is ridiculous. There are many parts of the world remote enough still have carriers who are dormant and we could never be assured that all of the samples throughout the world were indeed destroyed. Having samples might be useful in recreating vaccines for it.
Don’t you just hate when that happens? Details, details. Maybe the filled viles didn’t have a government inventory numbers, or maybe they did and that’s how they came to find them.
The whole question of whether viruses are are alive or dead is up for debate, probably permanently:
Viruses have no way to replicate themselves outside of a host —they require infection so as to hijack the host’s organelles for that an other purposes.
Even dead scabs that fall off of a dead host are infections and on average each Smallpox victim infects TWELVE other hosts.
Ping...
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
Good thing he didn’t decide to make a quick buck on Craig’s List!
This news story makes me uneasy.