[11B3]

The 350 reported cases in China would point to that being initial field testing on humans - they have a highly controlled society where they would be certain to contain it even if it were released on the "public".

If it is indeed man-made for weapons use, it seems as though they could have come up with something far more infectious as well as having a higher lethality. That would say it is a natural shift as you suggested. Right?

[gas_dr]

Yes, but do you trust that the chinese would not attempt to engineer something and then test it on its on subjects. Tinfoil alert to be sure, but I am just not sure -- it seems unlikely to have a new, infective bug that CDC goes crazy about timed so close to IRAQ war...just call me Oliver Stone I suppose

[Domestic Church]

"If it is indeed man-made for weapons use, it seems as though they could have come up with something far more infectious as well as having a higher lethality"

We haven't seen enough cases to pinpoint lethality and the numbers coming out of the Asian countries aren't concrete. Also we don't know if the lethality will change with population genetics. If it is weaponized I would expect that.

Even if it is a natural shift, the timing is still so suspect to consider the possibility of it being opportunistic warefare.