Captain Trips may be Dutch

[Bosonic]

Expert unease over deadly flu virus 'created' in Dutch laboratory

Dutch scientists have created a flu virus which is so deadly there is doubt about whether the research should be published, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The paper says American experts are worried detailed information could fall into the wrong hands and that terrorists could recreate the virus as a weapon. The fears are notable because the work was carried out on behalf of the National Institutes of Health in the US.

The research team, led by Ron Fouchier, professor of virology at Erasmus teaching hospital, was able to create a highly infectious variant of the bird flu virus H5N1. H5N1 rarely transfers from animal to human, but if it does, the infection is often fatal.

Fouchier was asked to find out if H5N1 could lead to a pandemic and was able to show that a couple of mutations in the virus dna changed it into an extremely virulent form. Japanese researchers have also made similar findings, the paper says.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/11/expert_unease_over_deadly_flu.php

[Swede]

1. Don't fear the reaper!

[nc4bo]

2. The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead!

Why in the hell would we create such a thing?!

Bad enough viruses evolve but that isn't good enough for stupid humans....nope.

I wonder if they bothered to create vaccine for it....I wonder if they even thought about it.

[Tesha]

9. You don't find it an interesting question to ask "What makes any given flu strain more or less...

...deadly?"?

I find that a *VERY* interesting question and if the answer were properly
applied, the human species could benefit from it.

Tesha

[nc4bo]

15. Tesha, for some reason I'm thinking bioweapon

Maybe I'm being extra cynical.

Once upon a time that thought would not be the first on my list.

[Tesha]

16. It could go either way.

It could be a boon to the progress of human health worldwide
as we better-understand immunology and virology.

Or it could be militarized although without a rather-obvious
program of immunizing "our side" first, it wouldn't be a very-
practical weapon.

Or it could be a tool used by a radical group to de-populate
the planet down to much-more-sustainable level of human
population. I could imagine that there are a lot of people who,
If they had a vial of Captain Trips virii, would grab an atomizer
and head for the crowds at the nearest international airport.

Tesha

[Swede]

25. Some people just want to see the world burn.

nt

[TransitJohn]

3. Jerry Garcia was Dutch?

Who knew? :shrug:

[Warren DeMontague]

5. honorary.

:hippie:

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. Whatever they do, I hope they keep Charles Campion away from the stuff! n/t

[soleft]

6. Wow. I just finished reading The Stand today.

Thanks for creeping me out!

[Fumesucker]

12. The White Plague is far creepier than The Stand..

Mostly because it's a lot more believable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Plague

When an IRA bomb goes off, the wife and children of molecular biologist John Roe O'Neill are killed on May 20, 1996. Driven halfway insane by loss, his mind fragments into several personalities that carry out his plan for him. He plans a genocidal revenge and creates a plague that kills women. O'Neill then releases it in Ireland (for supporting the terrorists), England (for oppressing the Irish and giving them a cause), and Libya (for training said terrorists); he demands that the governments of the world send all citizens of those countries back to their countries, and that they quarantine those countries and let the plague run its course, so they will lose what he has lost; if they don't, he has more plagues to release.

[Tesha]

17. I'm sorry but that sounds like an awful book (certainly when compared to "The Stand"). (NT)

[Fumesucker]

19. It's supposed to be awful..

That's what dystopian fiction is all about.

The Stand starts off with 99% plus of the human race dying off from a plague, The White Plague shows the process.

[Tesha]

20. To me, there's a difference between "dystopian" and just-plain racist trash.

The Stand is dystopian.

Swan Song is dystopian.

The Handmaid's Tale is dystopian.

The Gate to Women's Country is dystopian.

As literature, I like them all; it doesn't sound like I'd like this at all.

Tesha

[Fumesucker]

21. Herbert wrote about how people act under intense pressure, physical, social, mental..

The Stand and The Handmaid's Tale are really more fantasy than SF while The White Plague is more SF than Fantasy, people prefer different perspectives.

About the only fantasy I enjoy much any more is Terry Pratchett, I enjoyed Monstrous Regiment and I just got Wyrd Sisters at the flea market, it's next on my fiction list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstrous_Regiment_(novel)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters

[Tesha]

22. I agree with you that aspects of "The Stand" are clearly fantasy.

The whole God/Devil/mental Radio thing is pure fantasy.

The Handmaid's Tale, on the other hand, doesn't depend
on anything that isn't possible right here in our fair country with our
current technology and politics.

Thanks fir the other suggestions, BTW. I've heard The Wyrd Sisters
mentioned more than once.

Tesha

[PCIntern]

24. I hope the edition you read was the UNABRIDGED one...

the original lacked about 300000 words or so I think...including some of the best sequences including The Kid...

One of my favorite popular fiction books of all time...brilliant in so many ways...

[Yo_Mama]

7. Because the lab mutation can happen in nature

and so it gives scientists an idea of whether to spend a lot of money on addressing H5N1 is really important.

A flu virus as a weapon only appeals to a real lunatic, though. Flu spreads so rapidly through human populations that you would be unlikely to avoid killing as high a percentage of your own population as of your enemy's. Still, a Unabomber type might do it.

[Electric Monk]

8. Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created

in research lab

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2066624/Anthrax-isnt-scary-compared-Man-flu-virus-potential-wipe-millions-created-warns-frightened-scientist.html

Paul Keim, chairman of NSABB (U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity), said: 'I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one.' :scared:

[BlueIris]

10. Yikes. And I have to ask...what is the purpose of creating something like this?

Seems like the ultimate Pandora's box to me.

[JCMach1]

11. This really does freak me out...

[alphafemale]

13. lmao. The first of this years flu of doom threads nt

[Tesha]

18. Why does this make you laugh? (NT)

[alphafemale]

23. AHHHH!!!!! Guess what! WEEEE'REEE ALLL GOINNNG TO DIE!!!!!

No we're not.


Find a better grip.

[Tesha]

27. You don't seem to have any rebuttal argument. (NT)

[alphafemale]

28. Against....your assertion that we ALL GOING TO DIE!!! suddenly and SOON?

Yeah, I also don't have a rebuttal to there's not giant invisible pink elephants floating about my head.

None whatsover.

[Tesha]

29. Show me where I said that or even anything remotely like that. (NT)

[alphafemale]

30. This is a Captain Tripps thread? Is it not?

we get these every year about this time.

[Tesha]

31. So in other words, I didn't say what you claim I said -- thanks! (NT)

[alphafemale]

32. sweety-snoockums. YOU responded to me. You can look up thread and see that.

anyone can.

[Selatius]

14. Even if they don't publish the results. Some other government will try to weaponize H5N1.

If it isn't the US, it'll be Russia, and if it isn't Russia, then China will do it. All of those I mentioned have extensive biological weapons programs.

[NashVegas]

26. Best to Stock Up On Seed Supplies

Fruits & veggies, preferably organic/heirloom.