Posted on 04/12/2005 10:17:54 PM PDT by neverdem
Officials Race to Destroy Samples
A dangerous strain of the flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 1957 was sent to thousands of laboratories in the United States and around the world, triggering a frantic effort to destroy the samples to prevent an outbreak, health officials revealed yesterday.
Because the virus is easily transmitted from person to person and many people have no immunity to it, the discovery has raised alarm that it could cause another deadly pandemic if a laboratory worker became infected, officials said.
As a result, health authorities were urgently working to make sure all samples are destroyed and to closely monitor anyone who may have come into contact with the virus for signs of illness, officials said.
"This virus could cause a pandemic," said Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's top flu expert. "We are talking about a fully transmissible human influenza virus to which the majority of the population has no immunity. We are concerned."
Although no infections have been reported, and the chances of infection are probably low, the potential consequences are so grave that urgent steps were necessary, he said.
"If a laboratory accident were to occur, a person could become infected. If that happened, that person would likely fall ill and he or she could infect somebody else. And that could mark the beginning of a global outbreak," Stohr said.
WHO is working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and other national health agencies to contain the situation, he said, adding that "the level of concern about this virus is very high."
The virus, known as an H2N2 strain, killed 1 million to 4 million people worldwide in 1957 and 1958, including about 70,000 in the United States. Because the virus has not circulated in the....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping
Must be the same crap I just got over. Kansas Crud type A.
This would be funny .....were it not such an amazingly insane goofup! Goodness.
The scientists will end up killing us all.
"Although no infections have been reported, and the chances of infection are probably low, the potential consequences are so grave that urgent steps were necessary, he said."
I'm willing to bet that this is a 50 year old report, brushed up and re-articulated to promote terror.
Not all terrorists are blatent ... some are very, very devious.
Don't forget, this is the comPOST.
Who handled the shipping-Morons R Us?
What source would you prefer? Here's Google
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
BS I remember when the Russian government was seeking samples of this flu virus purely for research purposes. I do not beleive that it was accidently anything. There is far too much terror involved. Nice interesting line though. Containment was absolute. Don't kid yourself into thinking it was accidently mailed with you circulars. It was not.
Probably a democrat. Since that's typically their mentality factor.
If you really want to be scared they dug flu victims out of the Alaskan tundra from a period of time and a flu epedimic that should scare you. I don't really think it was for research into a vaccine. They did manage to get live virus. Now was it for research or germ warfare?
It's 8AM on a beautiful fall day ... I've arrived at work, all signed in and white frocked and when I get to me work station I see a memo to take samples of XYZ, in the 'fridge since '57, and send samples all over the planet.
Ordinarilly, I wouldn't give two hoots about a memo like this, but hey ... I'm just a lab tech.
So I take samples of something that hasn't been around since '57 and package them up with all the proper safety measures and send them off.
If I do approach my super and ask WTF, ... what kind of an answer did I get?
I don't know, it seems to me that many more people than a super and a tech. were involved in whatever reason prompted this act, and that is why a fearful report like this is suspect.
(Now, if Igor really is in sole charge of this kind of stuff ... we're in a whole lot more trouble than a nasty cold ... you betcha'.)
I sure feel like I am about to die. I have not felt this sick in ages....just pure hell. Some really nasty bug is going around here right now.
LOL! We are in trouble.
You're scarring me. I don't want to grow up and face reality:) Seriously, you may be right. It's just that I've worked in hospitals and have seen too much incompetence.
Gotta be Kansas Crud type A. Get lots of rest, drink lots of liquids and take vitamin C. I supect you will be scared you will die and afraid you won't.
Now, I ask me ... what kind of PT test could I possibly run on a disease that I would need global conformation as well?
Dead skunk in the middle of the road.
That sounds like a "cover your butt" statement and they seem to be hoping that someone will fall for it.
I don't know anyone that stupid.
Between Drilling to the bottom of the Earth's crust and disturbing Comet orbits, and now this, I tend to agree with you. They could care less about the rest of us billions, only thing that matters is doing research and amazing feats. They're lack of common sense is mind boggling and dangerous.
Their reference standards don't include Influenza type B samples.
Who sent it from where, and why doesn't it say?
By no stretch of the imagination is it a goof up.
Anything shipped from one lab to another would be clearly marked with what it was. It would also be marked in some fashion saying whether it was something newly emergent and unidentified or something already known. It would also be marked on it's risk of contagion factor. It would also be marked on it's lethality factor.
If these, and others, are not the relevant items, then you put a lot of faith in complete idiots.
And let me emphasize I am not arguing with you personally, it's just that I trust these croutons even less than I trust doctors.
My dear wife, who had a thyroid problem and went to her doctor no less than five times a year, fell over dead from an aneurysm.
Here we are worried about democrat versus republican and some unelected moron who sits behind a desk and wants fame and fortune makes a decision that could kill millions.
"Between Drilling to the bottom of the Earth's crust and disturbing Comet orbits, and now this, I tend to agree with you. They could care less about the rest of us billions, only thing that matters is doing research and amazing feats. They're lack of common sense is mind boggling and dangerous."
Two weeks passed from suffering from the nasty little monster roaming the plains.
NOW they decide to recall it......
The trouble is that the defensive study of viruses and the way in which they can be artificially modified by enemies requires the same equipment and gives one the same skills as those who would use it effectively. Which is why you will never convince all the major powers that their rivals aren't ready to biowar them into submission.
The moment you have a detailed enough knowledge of the 1918 Flu pandemic to understand why it was so prolific/successful and successful, you have taken a major step to replicating it deliberately. ANd even if you don't you make it that much harder to keep the knowledge secret...grave dangers but probably unavoidable.
We've had that nasty bug circulation here for months. It drops you down for at least four days, then hangs on for 2-3 weeks.
By the way, anybody know how these labs "lock down" the samples? Where do they go to be destroyed?
Here's a brief explanation from the article:
The problem arose when a private company, Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati, sent a panel of virus samples to about 3,700 laboratories, some in doctors' offices, to be tested as part of routine quality-control certification conducted by the College of American Pathologists. An additional 2,750 laboratories, all in the United States, received the samples as part of other certification processes and were asked to destroy them, CDC spokesman Dan Rutz said.
snip
I've been doing some computer consulting work for a large hospital over the last couple of months. The office they gave me to work in is right next to the lab. I think I want a new office!
Greg
Our government will protect us from harm.
IMO they just did.
One would think that it would be a simple matter to have rounded up all the vials that stupidity caused to be shipped to the various laboratories.
This episode appears to be a replay of this October surprise:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1264257/posts
"...The bacteria -- which tainted about half of the nation's flu vaccine supply -- was once considered a harmless microbe. But a 1950 experiment, in which a ship off the San Francisco coast let loose clouds of Serratia marcescens to test whether an enemy could launch a biological warfare attack from a distance, is now suspected of causing a cluster of hard-to-treat infections..."
I think we dodged a bullet.
ping
I heard this early this morning on Cincy AM radio before it hit the big TV media types. A firm here in Cincinnati is the one that sent out all the samples.
The idea was to have test samples sent to various laboratories with different strains of the virus to see if those labs could accurately ID the strains.
Personally, I think they should have gone on with the test.
I'm now curious whether those yahoos could actually ID a deadly strain. I sorta want them able to do it.
It's also a great "wag the dog" technique. Send out something you know is attention-grabbing and then announce what you've done....so you can distract attention from other things going on that same day.
What else was going on this same day? (I know...I know...get me a tin foil hat. :>)
No, that's incorrect, according to an excellent article today in the NYT (I haven't found it on FR.)
The NYT said four companies sent out the erroneous test kits.
One might be a careless "error."
FOUR companies making the same mistake is intentional.
And now Fox is reporting that this killer flu was distributed to 5,000 labs.
I think Homeland Security is earning its budget, though they will probably never admit to this one. Too scary.
>>>>These idiots are the suits you see standing on the side of the road helplessly looking at their flat tire and calling AAA on their cell phones demanding help. No common sense at all. They need keepers IMHO. Very dangerous to have them running around loose.
This was so funny and so true.
Thank you for the ping
Well, if you liked that one, ping to 43. 8~)
>>>>What else was going on this same day?
There is a beluga whale in the Delaware River....
I can't think of anything else.
That sounds similar to the test the Russians did with the air borne small pox.
I've been seeing an increasse of meningitis reports.
culling the herd, baby boomers, insurance dont mix
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