Researchers reconstruct killer 1918 flu virus

[Crazy Cooter]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7279844/did/9598565/
Scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed as many as 50 million people in 1918, the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed.
...
The public health risk of resurrecting the virus is minimal, U.S. health officials said. People around the world developed immunity to the deadly 1918 virus after the pandemic, and a certain degree of immunity is believed to persist today. Also, in previous research, scientists concluded that modern antiviral medicines are effective against Spanish flu-like viruses.


If they're so concerned about the stuff in Asia, why recreate this one?  Wouldn't it have made more sense to test the stuff in Asia?  How do they know modern antiviral medicines are effective against this... without having tested it already?  Is this considered a biological weapon?

[Bones]

There really is nothing new here....

The more viruses that are torn down to their basic building blocks and reassembled the better. Once we understand these nasty little ---daisies--- and how the pieces fit together and interact, the problems they cause for us humans will be history. To learn we have to be playing with the real bad guys sometimes. Playing with a wort virus can only take you so far.

Biological weapon? Data is the weapon, not the born-again virus residing in a cold fridge.

If the data that described the genetic makeup of the virus was leaked to terrorist groups, this would cause me great reason for concern. With data the bad guys have a good reason to learn how to assemble the stuff, technology that is becoming increasingly common and can be learned at any quality university.

To fight it, you have to understand it. Kind'a sends you back to having to create the stuff in order to learn to protect yourself against it.  Or something like that......

[Stingray]

For some reason Stephen King's The Stand comes to mind.

-S

[Avery]

The stuff in Asia is not a major killer...yet (and hopefully never).  Also, knowledge of this type is transferable.  There are anti-cancer drugs now that are a result of immunology advances made in HIV research.  This may be useless against the avian flu, but may be of major importance for the next nasty bug to come down the pike, or the one after that, etc.

Going from a DNA sequence to an organism (if you want to call a virus and organism) is not something you can do in a cave somewhere.  Also, since they got one of the samples from a grave in Alaska, it is already out there.  Knowing what it is and how it does it's grim business.

All that being said, my western blots are done scanning.  Later.   

[fredster]

Cooter, You asked

If they're so concerned about the stuff in Asia, why recreate this one?  Wouldn't it have made more sense to test the stuff in Asia?  How do they know modern antiviral medicines are effective against this... without having tested it already?  Is this considered a biological weapon?

The article answered all those questions.

"Why? To help them understand how to better fend off a future global epidemic from the bird flu spreading in Southeast Asia."

"Like the 1918 virus, the current avian flu in Southeast Asia occurs naturally in birds. In 1918, the virus mutated, infected people and then spread among them. So far, the current Asian virus has infected and killed at least 65 people but has rarely spread person-to-person. -  ...But viruses mutate rapidly and it could soon develop infectious properties like those seen in the earlier bug, said Dr. Jeffery "

And it went on to explain that the old bug killed so many because of the condition of people at the time, and that terrorists can't duplicate this, and we have treatments.

Don't worry man.  It will be okay.

[Harry Potter]

Don't worry man.

[fredster]

that and

"Hey man, watch this!"

[Crazy Cooter]

LOL.

I'm just curious as to why they're trying to turn an apple (the old virus) into a modified peach when they can just start with the peach (the new virus) in the first place.

Seems like a round-a-bout way to do something.

I'm always paranoid about our "use of" germs...
http://home.comcast.net/~kknowlto/openair.htm
His book "Clouds of Secrecy" is incredible.

[ChadTower]

that and

"Hey man, watch this!"

I watched my little brother, when he was like 5, on a swing.  His exact quote:

Hey look, no hands!

He flew off, did a scary looking somersault, and fractured his pelvis on the ground.  He spent the summer in a cast from his navel down to the middle of each thigh.  They put a bar across between his legs so we could carry him up and down the stairs to the toilet.

[Stingray]

that and

"Hey man, watch this!"

The full version is "hold my beer and watch this".

-S

[Crazy Cooter]

ROFLMAO!  That's what my brother said when we were camping a couple years ago.  Seconds later he was running around with his sleeve on fire.

[Stingray]

"Hold my beer and watch this" never ends well.

-S

[Harry Potter]

"Hold my beer and watch this" never ends well.

-S

Especially when who's beer you're holding is walking towards a 300lb woman in some pub. 

[Stingray]

"Hold my beer and watch this" never ends well.

-S

Especially when who's beer you're holding is walking towards a 300lb woman in some pub. 

In which case you might as well drink it. He's clearly had enough.

-S

[ChadTower]

300lb chicks and scooters, man.

[Harry Potter]

300lb chicks and scooters, man.

All I can think of when I read that is a massive amount of sparks and proposed roadworks the following day.

[ChadTower]

No no no, they're both fun to ride until your friends see you doing it.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

An even more heart-warming story: A small aircraft carrying cargo for FedEx Corp.

[ChadTower]

It's the Unit from Beavis and Butthead Do America.

[Stingray]

Four of the vials were herpes.

Note to Canadians, if you were planning on having sex with a plane crash over the weekend, you may want to reconsider.

-S