[mvpel]

Not a very effective bio-weapon, if it is one - what, a 4% death rate?

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[Servant of the Nine]

Sorry, but yesterday the NIH identified it as a variant Coronavirus (common cold). New variants turn up regularly, that's why we don't have a vaccine for the common cold, there is too fast a change in the mix.

This one is more lethal than any in years, but still less than 5% lethality.
That is way too low for a bioweapon.

So9

[Sam Cree]

Weird article.

"there is no vaccine for this virus"

I am under the impression that there is no vaccine for any virus.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

""there is no vaccine for this virus, its make-up is unclear, it has not been very widespread and the population is not immune to it." * * *

Hmmm- let me think about this for a minute. I guess that, by these criteria, EVERY new strain of "Flu" is a bioweapon, too? And how about colds? No vaccines, little immunity... This is the reasoning of a High School sophomore- in a mediocre school.

[Jemian]

The virus, ...is a cocktail of mumps and measles, whose mix could never appear in nature. ..."We can only get that in a laboratory.... It may have spread because of an "accidental leak" from a lab, he added.

I doubt that it was accidental. If true, it was leaked intentionally to test its effectiveness. What is a few deaths to an over-populated, communist country?

[Henchman]

I doubt it is a bio weapon. Even if it is a serious item to those over 40, and there is a death rate progression, those of 90 aren't too worried. The articles I read indicates the disease is no worse than a politically correctly named Asian Flu and it is a cross between Clamydia and Pneumonia. Who knows what they were eating in Hong Kong?

[John H K]

There isn't the slightest indication ANY of these Russian scientists have gotten samples of the virus, looked at it, or examined patients with the virus.

But hey, people want to believe it's a bioweapon because it makes them feel better and it's less frightening to believe it's a bioweapon (I'm not kidding; people would be more terrified if it was a random natural mutation).

There have been hundreds of naturally emergent new diseases in human history, and one of the best areas for this is Southern China.

The 1918 Flu pandemic, of course, wasn't bioengineering because people didn't have the capability back then. But if it happened today 90% of FR would be convinced it was biowarfare and it would be hopeless to convince them otherwise.

[semaj]

I was talking to a friend of mine just the other day about this possibility. A plausible scenairio could be that this is a bio-weapon that perhaps a terrorist organization accidentally released in or were themselves exposed to while transporting to a potential target city. Hence, the relative small number of casualties to date, due to a lack in concentrated release.

[vetvetdoug]

Measles is a paramyxovirus and this virus (SARS) is a Coronavirus. This article is pure speculation. I have seen viruses mutate in a population before and be just as lethal as supposedly bioengineered viruses. SARS is a quirk of nature that is common and occurs every 20-40 years or so. It is highly infectious and will spread no matter what we do to prevent it.

[ladyinred]

I thought this already, but doubt this will be reported much if true.

[cdrw]

Hi gang - first post.

Okay so there is no love lost between the Russians and the Chinese. The Russians are a propoganda machine ... we have to take their rumor baiting with a grain of salt. I do have a concern about the "4% mortality rate". I can not find a believable reference to this number. The CDC SARS site contains total known cases and total deaths. If you divide deaths by cases you get about 4% but that doesn't cut it for me.

The total number of deaths divided by the cumulative total number of cases does not account for the fact that many of these cases have not yet had time to die. I have two open questions for the world. 1) Does anybody have a reference to scientifically valid and reliable estimates of the mortality rate for this thing? and/or 2) does my thinking simply reflect ignorance of the topic?

Think about it. If it usually takes a week or two to die after showing symptoms and the vast majority of cases have shown up only in the past week then ... the deaths reported thus far are old news. I would think the mortality rate might be more accurately calculated as number of dead people divided by total number of people known to have recovered completely. Any thoughts?

[TheLion]

Bump

[CathyRyan]

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_830794.htm
WHO says killer pneumonia has peaked in China
The World Health Organisation says it believes the spread of a killer pneumonia in China has peaked.

It comes as China announced..... Bwahahahaha! Yeah, right....

[chilepepper]

Uh Oh! My paranoia is showing...

my nightmare is that SARS IS NOT so much a developed "bioweapon", rather is a laboratory developed COVER for a real "bioweapon" which has the same symptoms. In other words, the SARS deathrate is "only" 4% for the normal population, but surprise, surprise, it suddenly shoots up to a 50% deathrate among our soldiers in Iraq, or in Los Angeles, New York, London, Tel Aviv etc...

the bad guys launch the real bioweapon and then claim they didn't do anything and the damage gets blamed on the SARS..., particulary nasty if we let our guard down.

kudos to GWB for treating this seriously and allowing quarantine at the border.