A scientist from the Netherlands, Ron Fouchier, has engineered a highly mutated version of the H5N1 Bird Flu that is capable of killing half of the human population, should it ever escape a lab. Using lab animals, Dr. Fouchier was able to “breed” a super mutated version of the virus that is more potent that normal H5N1 and, worse, it is capable of being easily transmitted between humans…through the air. This means that unlike regular “Bird Flu”, this super version can quickly spread through the human population and people can infect each other simply by breathing the same air. But wait. It gets even more insane.
To quote from RT.com, where I came across this story…
“Researchers in Fouchier’s team used ferrets – test animals which closely mimic the human response to influenza – and transmitted H5N1 from one to another to make it more adaptable to new hosts. After 10 generations, the virus had mutated to become airborne, which means ferrets became ill from merely being near other diseased animals.
A genetic study showed that the new, dangerous strain had only five mutations compared to the original one, and all of them were earlier seen in the natural environment – just not all at once. Fouchier’s strain is as contagious as the human seasonal flu, which kills tens of thousands of people each year, but is likely to cause many more fatalities if released.
“I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one,” Paul Keim, a microbial geneticist who has worked on anthrax for many years, told Science Insider. “I don’t think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.”
Not content to have simply engineered a super virus, with no known antidote, Dr. Ron Fouchier is fighting to have details of his work published. Should this happen, Dr. Fouchier would essentially be providing a step-by-step instruction guide on how he did what he did. This knowledge, in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing, would allow them to re-create the work, meaning anyone motivated enough, and with enough resources, could engineer this super virus. So, crazy rouge dictators and terrorists, stop wasting you money on attempting to build a nuclear weapon. Sit back and read about how you can get your hands on something much, much worse. It’s called, “How to End Humanity” and is written by the mad scientist Dr. Fouchier.
Okay, maybe I’m getting a bit carried away, there. In his defense, Dr. Fochier does seem to make a valid, not crazy, argument as to why he wants his work published. He explains that, yes, this mutated virus would be capable of killing the fuck out of humanity. However, he says that by burying his work, we’ll never be able to develop a defense against this virus. And, should this mutation that he engineered in a lab actually happen on it own, out in nature (a possibility, I suppose)…we’d be fucked. So, he says, better to give his research to the scientific community at large and use it to begin building some sort of counter to this thing.
So where do we stand now. Well, Dr. Paul Keim (who was quoted above) and his associates have to decide on if they’ll allow this research to be made public. And, as you can imagine, that’s not an easy decision to make, considering what’s at stake, regardless of which way they go. Again, quoting from RT.com…
“Now Keim, who chairs the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), and other members of the body, have a very difficult decision to make. Fouchier wants his study to be published. So does virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, who led similar research in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Tokyo, and reached comparable results. And it is up to NSABB to give them the green light.
Many academics and biosecurity experts are naturally cautious about releasing information which could provide any bioterrorist with a ready recipe to hold the world to ransom. Some argue that such work should never have been done in the first place and call for international monitoring of potentially harmful research.
“It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it,” believes Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert and director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.”
This reminds me of one of those academic debates we used to have in ethics class, when I was in college. However, this isn’t academic. Regardless of what decision is made, it could have pretty horrible, or life-saving, consequences. If the work is published, terrorists could use it as a recipee to create their own super-virus. If it’s not published, however, we may never be able to defend ourselves from this virus should it somehow mutate on its own. What would you do? Publish the report, or bury it? Let us know in the comments below.
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