Posted on 10/31/2003 12:10:53 PM PST by GluteusMax
Lethal Virus from 1918 Genetically Reconstructed
US Army scientists create "Spanish Flu" virus in laboratory - medical benefit questionable
(Austin and Hamburg, 9 October 2003) – The 'Spanish Flu' influenza virus that killed 20-40 million people in 1918 is currently under reconstruction. Several genes of the extraordinarily lethal 1918 flu virus have been isolated and introduced into contemporary flu strains. These proved to be lethal for mice, while virus constructs with genes from a current flu virus types had hardly any effect. These experiments may easily be abused for military purposes, but provide little benefit from a medical or public health point of view.
The 1918 Spanish Flu was highly infectious and – in comparison to contemporary flu viruses – killed a very high percentage of those infected, including many younger people. The Spanish Flu alone caused the medium life expectancy in the US in 1918 to drop by 10 years. Hence, flu viruses are perceived today as a serious biological warfare threat. Just two weeks ago, a 15 million dollar research grant was awarded in the US to develop protective measures especially against a bioterrorist attack with flu viruses.
Despite the very dangerous nature of the 1918 virus, efforts to reconstruct it started in the mid 1990s, when Dr Jeffrey Taubenberger from the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington DC succeeded in recovering and sequencing fragments of the viral RNA from preserved tissues of 1918 victims. In the current issue of the scientific journal Emerging Infectious Diseases new genetic details of the 1918 flu virus will be published.
But after (partially) unravelling the genetic sequence of the virus, the scientists went a step further and began bringing the Spanish flu back to life. Unnoticed by the public, they succeeded in creating a live virus containing two 1918 genes that proved to be very lethal in animal experiments. This experiment is only one genetic step away from taking the 1918 demon entirely out of the bottle.
A resuscitation of the Spanish flu is neither necessary nor warranted from a public health point of view. Allegedly, the recent experiments sought to test the efficacy of existing antiviral drugs on the 1918 construct. But there is little need for antiviral drugs against the 1918 strain if the 1918 strain had not been recreated in the first place "It simply does not make any scientific sense to create a new threat just to develop new countermeasures against it." says Jan van Aken, biologist with the Sunshine Project, "Genetic characterization of influenza strains has important biomedical applications. But it is not justifiable to recreate this particularly dangerous eradicated strain that could wreak havoc if released, deliberately or accidentally."
Construction of new maximum security (BSL-4) laboratories for biodefense research has been justified in part by citing the potential of the Spanish Flu as a biological weapon. Influenza usually requires a low level of containment; but when scientists begin recombining virulence-related genes, the danger dramatically increases. The University of Texas Medical Branch's BSL-4 plans influenza 'gene reassortment' experiments in maximum containment. "This kind of research is creating a vicious circle, and could prompt a race by biodefense scientists to genetic engineer unthinkable diseases", says Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project, "What disease comes after influenza? Biodefense laboratories must not become self-fulfilling prophesy centers. The world does not need biodefense programs to create a 'genetically engineered disease gap'."
From an arms control perspective it appears to be particularly sensitive if a military research institution embarks on a project that aims at constructing more dangerous pathogens. "If Jeffery Taubenberger worked in a Chinese, Russian or Iranian laboratory, his work might well be seen as the 'smoking gun' of an offensive biowarfare program," says van Aken.
No kidding. This is insanity.
Ugh. Just flashed back to the 60s...
The problem is:......
Who says that the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, (whowever) are NOT working on this as a weapons program? It may be hypocricy to work on this, but it could be used to create antibiotics to fight it. The truth is: bioweapons are not useful, because they will also kill your side, but we could also be looking at an "Army of the Twelve Monkeys" scenario. A suicidal terrorist would love to get his creepy hands on this stuff.
In short, there could be a very good reason for pursuing this line of research.
I can't see a plausible justification for actively seeking out surviving tissue samples (requiring several attempts to find viable virii) from lungs of corpses.
How gullible must one be to really believe Moslem terrorists could get access to records of dead Western soldiers who died from the 1918 Spanish flu, exhume them, successfully identify and find the RNA they were seeking and then pull off a successful genome mapping?
I can't say that I agree. The quoted language--"It simply does not make any scientific sense to create a new threat just to develop new countermeasures against it"--is too cute. It assumes that noone else can accomplish the same thing as the researchers did. But if the researchers can do it, so can NK, China and Iran. Don't you think it would be a good idea to understand the genome of this killer for countermeasures?
They were also opposed to the destruction of chemical weapon stocks, and tried to create a panic: apparently preferring to expose those around the arms depots to insanely higher risks; meanwhile, promoting "safety equipment" ( gas masks, sheets of polyvinyl, etc.) at inflated prices, via website links.
They know quite well you have to use live viruses to create vaccines, and they use the presence of these viruses to create panic.
It would not surprise me to learn they ( or some of their more ardent followers ) have been behind some of the "unusual incidents" in some of the biolabs.
More like "The Stand" by Stephen King (or at least the beginning of it).
All it takes is for one accidentally infected researcher to take a deadly virus home with him and you can have something on your hands that makes the most unimagineable horror seem like kids stuff
You should send Stephen King a email telling him about this..
He might write a book using it as the plot line!!!!!:+0
In short, there could be a very good reason for pursuing this line of research.
The problem with that line of thinking is that a bioweapon is by design not the original virus. Researchers seek to identify what made the 1918 bug so deadly and then splice that sequence in and try it on mice. They do this till they get the "results" they are looking for. (Ghoulish) If a rogue state went after the especially virulent features of the 1918 variant to incorporate into a modern influenza strain, who says our conjecture on their choice would be correct? We may be immunized against something that doesn't exist in the enemy arsenal.
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