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Impeding progress (China’s Avian Flu Research)
Kansas City Star ^ | Oct. 02, 2005 | Masthead Editorial

Posted on 10/02/2005 11:01:09 AM PDT by neverdem

China took a lot of deserved criticism a few years ago for its slow reaction to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Now Beijing is rightly coming under fire for stalling on requests from international health officials to share samples of bird-flu virus.

Evidently, the Chinese are afraid they won’t receive proper credit for the research they’ve done so far. That would be astonishingly shortsighted.

Bird flu has popped up in several Asian countries besides China. Birds, notably chickens, have died in large numbers either from the disease or from programs to stop its spread by eradicating flocks.

About 100 humans have come down with avian flu so far, and more than half have died. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences says the virus is “unprecedented in its scale, in its spread, and in the economic losses it has caused.”

The fear is that the virus will mutate and spread from human to human.

The Chinese have samples of the virus and say they will eventually provide them to international health authorities, but so far they’ve resisted.

Why? Juan Lubroth of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says Beijing is worried that Chinese scientists “won’t get the international scientific recognition that they think they deserve.” A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture told The Wall Street Journal that Chinese research institutions shared samples in 2004, but the material was given without any intellectual-property protections.

Such concerns are odd, given that Beijing has been reluctant to crack down on intellectual-property thieves when the victims are Western producers of computer software or Hollywood DVDs.

Lubroth, who recently visited China with several officials from the World Health Organization, says Chinese scientists were quite open in some areas but would not provide avian-flu samples or the genetic-code sequences they’ve worked out so far.

Surely Beijing’s concerns can be quickly resolved. If the worst-case scenario becomes a reality, China will have more to worry about than who gets credit for scientific research.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: avianinfluenza; birdflu; china; propertyrights; sars
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1 posted on 10/02/2005 11:01:12 AM PDT by neverdem
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To: vetvetdoug; Mother Abigail; Judith Anne

ping


2 posted on 10/02/2005 11:04:49 AM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem
Unbelievably sad!
"Evidently, the Chinese are afraid they won’t receive proper credit for the research they’ve done so far"
3 posted on 10/02/2005 11:12:55 AM PDT by bubbleb
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To: bubbleb; All
More likely is that they need time to work on vaccinations for the PLA and a sutiable method to turn it into a bio weapon. Chicoms and their goals are evil to the core.
4 posted on 10/02/2005 11:57:03 AM PDT by vrwc0915
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To: neverdem
Such concerns are odd, given that Beijing has been reluctant to crack down on intellectual-property thieves when the victims are Western producers of computer software or Hollywood DVDs.

Odd? American leftists will attack your property rights to your land but hang you for violating their intellectual property. Look at how Streisand howled about people using "her beach."

IOW, what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too.

Typical leftists. It's all about power.

5 posted on 10/02/2005 12:14:02 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (There are people in power who are REALLY stupid.)
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To: vrwc0915

"Chicoms and their goals are evil to the core."

BUT, let's keep propping up their economy all in the name of "free trade"!!!!


6 posted on 10/02/2005 1:03:37 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite ( Mike Pence for President!!! http://acuf.org/issues/issue34/050415pol.asp)
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To: vrwc0915

I am of the opinion that China does not care how many Chinese die from this. I think they plan to restrict any vaccine they may develop to a chosen few.


7 posted on 10/02/2005 1:55:25 PM PDT by Judith Anne (Thank you St. Jude for favors granted.)
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To: Judith Anne

You can count on that!


8 posted on 10/02/2005 1:58:23 PM PDT by vrwc0915
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To: Jeff Head

Chicom ping sorry if you didn't want to be on this thread


9 posted on 10/02/2005 2:03:07 PM PDT by vrwc0915
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To: bubbleb
Evidently, the Chinese are afraid they won’t receive proper credit for the research they’ve done so far"

More infantile narcissism from the squalid savages of the East.

10 posted on 10/02/2005 2:47:02 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: El Gato; JudyB1938; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; ..
Bizarre and Infamous Join Scholarship in an Archive of Psychology

Dengue Virus Is Sweeping Asia, Killing Hundreds, Officials Say

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Anyone can post any unrelated link as they see fit.

11 posted on 10/02/2005 5:50:57 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: Judith Anne

Sometimes I suspect that many western leaders also see it that way.


12 posted on 10/03/2005 5:55:53 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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