Ex-Pfizer Worker Cites Genetically Engineered Virus In Lawsuit Over Firing

[ensho]

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-pfizer-virus-lawsuit-0314.artmar14,0,1763939.story?page=1


Medical experts will be watching closely Monday when a scientist who says she has been intermittently paralyzed by a virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory where she worked in Groton opens a much anticipated trial that could raise questions about safety practices in the dynamic field of genetic engineering.

Organizations involved in workplace safety and responsible genetic research already have seized on the federal lawsuit by molecular biologist Becky McClain as an example of what they claim is evidence that risks caused by cutting-edge genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories.

McClain, of Deep River, suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague in 2002 or 2003, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Medical experts working for McClain believe the virus has affected the way her body channels potassium, leading to a condition that causes complete paralysis as many as 12 times a month.

"If a worker in a plant as sophisticated as Pfizer is becoming infected with a genetically engineered virus, then I think the potential is everywhere," said Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a public interest group created to explore the implications of genetic technologies.

"Genetically engineered viruses are commonly worked on at your average university," Gruber said. "The public has a right to know what regulations are in place and what regulations are required to fix an industrywide issue. We need to have a conversation about this. Ms. McClain's attempt to do that has been hampered at every turn, by the courts and by regulators."
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oh good, hung over college students are so dependable (don't hollar at me, you all know drinking to excess is a university practice)

"the potential is everywhere"

cripe

hope she wins the case

[Barack_America]

1. Complete bullshit.

So let me get this straight, this woman thinks she was infected by an aerosolized lentivirus that altered her K+ channels causing intermittent paralysis to muscle tissue, sparing the respiratory and cardiac muscles?

Wow. That's a whole lot of crazy right there.

[ensho]

2. how would you know?

nt

[Barack_America]

3. I've worked in a lab with lentiviruses.

For starters.