[TheLion]

Important stuff!

[jim-x]

I read about that earlier in the day. I'm not so sure it was a good idea to reproduce that flu strain. It killed millions in 1918-1919.

They say that many people would have some type of immunity but who really knows?

[apackof2]

My grandfather died of this Flu in 1918
He was in his 30's and quite healthy, a very typical victim,...... healthy young men

[NewRomeTacitus]

Previously posted HERE.

[jocon307]

This was the article my boss was talking about today. And then hubby was asking, what was he talking about. I said, I don't know, it hasn't been posted to FR yet, but if it's important, it will be!

you win a gold star Perdogg!

[JohnBovenmyer]

Bush administration officials have been talking about pandemic flu preparedness for years, and they say they will soon release a pandemic flu plan, in the works for more than a year. Senate Democrats say that the administration is not doing enough, and they are writing their own bills that call for more spending and coordination.

How about some significant tort reform and FDA reform so the lawyers and bureaucrats won't up the price and delay the release of the solution! I'd love to watch Bush propose that and then watch those same Democrats choke on it.

[RebelTex]

From the article posted at top:

"...the cause of one of history's most deadly epidemics, has been reconstructed and found to be a bird flu..."

Now they have put the genetic info on the web.   From this article: (emphasis added)

"Publication of the work and the filing of the virus's genetic make-up to an online database followed an emergency meeting last week by the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which concluded that the benefits of publishing the work outweighed the risks. Many scientists remained sceptical. "Once the genetic sequence is publicly available, there's a theoretical risk that any molecular biologist with sufficient knowledge could recreate this virus," said Dr John Wood, a virologist at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in Potters Bar."

Don't worry, all the bad guys are too stupid to figure out how to recreate this virus.  History has proven that all scientists are good guys that would never create a bio weapon or nuke, right?   </sarcasm>

[Anathematized]

According to the article, Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers, said H5N1 "is perhaps the most effective bioweapons agent ever known."

And then they publish the genome which is the blueprint for making the virus.

[SunkenCiv]

alas...

Scientists: 1918 Killer Spanish Flu Was a Bird Flu
Fox News | October 05, 2005 | Daniel J. DeNoon
Posted on 10/05/2005 11:20:11 AM PDT by stm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497138/posts