Scientists to make mutant forms of new bird flu to assess risk

[green73]

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are to create mutant forms of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has emerged in China so they can gauge the risk of it becoming a lethal human pandemic.

The genetic modification work will to result in highly transmissible and deadly forms of H7N9 being made in several high security laboratories around the world, but it is vital to prepare for the threat, the scientists say.

The new bird flu virus, which was unknown in humans until February, has already infected at least 133 people in China and Taiwan, killing 43 of them, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data.

Announcing plans to start the controversial experiments, leading virologists Ron Fouchier and Yoshihiro Kawaoka said H7N9's pandemic risk would rise "exponentially" if it gained the ability to spread easily among people.

And the only way to find out how likely that is, and how many genetic changes would need to take place before it could happen, is to engineer those mutations in laboratory conditions and test the virus's potential using animal models, they said.

"It's clear this H7N9 virus has some hallmarks of pandemic viruses, and it's also clear it is still missing at least one or two of the hallmarks we've seen in the pandemic viruses of the last century," Fouchier told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"So the most logical step forward is to put in those (missing) mutations first."


cont
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/scientists-mutant-forms-bird-flu-assess-risk-170234059.html

[Cabal]

What could possibly go wrong?

[eduardo89]

What could possibly go wrong?

I don't know, but it seems like the premise to a low-budget zombie movie:


Searching for the cure for cancer, a scientist creates a chemical that promotes cell growth.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Zombies_x3.jpg

[Cabal]

I don't know, but it seems like the premise to a low-budget zombie movie:


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Zombies_x3.jpg

I'd torrent it.

[eduardo89]

I'd torrent it.

I love zombie movies. Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! was decent. There's also Zombie Strippers, which wasn't that good. Both were released in 2008.

[pcosmar]

What could possibly go wrong?

Isn't that what Baxter Pharmaceutical did when they mixed it with Swine Flu Vaccine.?

which everyone said could not possibly have happened by accident,,as they claimed.

[paulbot24]

Perhaps this is what has been going on with the original H1N1.....

Yoshihiro Kawaoka's lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison took the gene for the H5 protein and subbed it for H1 gene in H1N1. "It was a totally different experiment than Fouchier's, but it really gets at the same question: What do you need to get (airborne) transmission?" Racaniello said.

"Fouchier and colleagues said they hope to unravel the molecular processes behind H7N9 by manipulating its genetic material to increase virulence or induce drug resistance."

So after intentional tampering to create the H5N1 strain from the H1N1 (swine flu) to be deadlier, so deadly in fact that it now prefers human airborne transmission over avian transmission we get H7N9. Remember, throughout all this admitted tampering with the H5N1 strain to make it deadlier, authorities here and in various laboratories across the globe still claim the H7N9 just "appeared" in the wild. It's a good thing they happened to find it so they can work on it now.......Interesting also how most of the articles rationalize all this by saying these studies will help with their estimates of the magnitude and mortality rate they might encounter if the virus were capable of doing, well, everything they are programming it to do and then just one day "appear" in the wild. I have yet to find an article on this where they discuss preventative behaviors or good practices to safeguard yourself and others. Instead the focus is always on containment scenarios after the virus has spread. Does anybody believe certain factions of our government would be heartbroken if this virus somehow found itself in the wild and decimated Southeast Asia?

H1N1 -> H5N1 -> H7N9 -> ????

http://www.livescience.com/18551-flu-h5n1-experiments-explained.html
http://www.livescience.com/37945-h7n9-bird-flu-adapted.html

[James Madison]

Ever read Stephen King's The Stand?

[Anti Federalist]

Ever read Stephen King's The Stand?

Like 1984, more and more I'm becoming convinced the fuckers took it as a playbook and not a cautionary tale.

[Occam's Banana]

Now they just need to combine this with work on extracting paleontological DNA from amber-preserved insects and we'll have ...

... Zombie Dinosaurs! Hell, yeah!!


I love zombie movies.

I don't think you can ever really trust anyone who does not love zombie movies.
You can like those people. You can even love them. But trust them? Never!
There's just no telling what such irrational people might do or say next ...

[limequat]

My god...

[FindLiberty]

Jump in 53 seconds to learn about BIRD ATTACKS. Find out why...
BTW, This is the worst movie ever; this fact alone makes it worth watching!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5dJDgZ644

[Anti Federalist]

///

[TheTexan]

Let's make dangerous viruses to assess how dangerous they are

[ClaytonB]

Let's make dangerous viruses to assess how dangerous they are

"In other news, scientists play Russian roulette in a bid to calculate the probability of dying by Russian roulette..."

[Brian4Liberty]

What could possibly go wrong?

Global pandemic. Draconian shutdowns. Massive economic loss. Mental health crisis of panic, fear and despair. More power and money for the pharma-government complex. Socialism. Totalitarianism.

Did I miss anything?

[pcosmar]

Let's make dangerous viruses to assess how dangerous they are

Sounds like cover for Banned Bio-weapon Research and DEVELOPMENT.

[jmdrake]

Let's make dangerous viruses to assess how dangerous they are

Yeah. Because we know these viruses may someday appear in nature. But if we ever have a lab leak we'll just say "This virus couldn't have come from a lab. It had to come from nature."