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#Post#: 9938--------------------------------------------------
Scientists Debate Making Viruses More Dangerous In The Lab
By: guest6 Date: January 6, 2015, 3:29 am
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Scientists Debate If It's OK To Make Viruses More Dangerous In
The Lab
December 16, 2014 1:19 PM ET
Imagine that scientists wanted to take Ebola virus and see if it
could ever become airborne by deliberately causing mutations in
the lab and then searching through those new viruses to see if
any spread easily through the air.
Would that be OK?
The question was posed by David Relman, a microbiologist at
Stanford University, at a two-day meeting being held at the
National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., to discuss
whether some experiments with germs are so risky that the
dangers aren't worth the potential benefits.
Researchers call these "gain-of-function" experiments. Take a
bug that's bad and give it some genes that just might give the
microbes new abilities....
HTML http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/12/16/371198040/scientists-debate-if-its-ok-to-make-viruses-more-dangerous-in-the-lab
#Post#: 9940--------------------------------------------------
Re: Scientists Debate Making Viruses More Dangerous In The Lab
By: Brad Date: January 6, 2015, 8:25 am
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Its unethical ideas like this that make me not trust many
scientists. Its all about discovery and noteworthiness and no
worry about the unethical uses of it after the fact.
#Post#: 9943--------------------------------------------------
Re: Scientists Debate Making Viruses More Dangerous In The Lab
By: Kerry Date: January 6, 2015, 5:08 pm
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I suspect the people who want to do this are hoping to get
government grants to finance their experiments.
I'm against it. Even if we assume they have no malicious
motives, where are the guarantees that they are professional
enough to keep all the strains they have secure? We've seen
other things disappear strangely.
Can anyone think of a weapon man invented that wasn't used?
The only valid reason I could think of for doing this would be
if they wanted to devise ways to combat an air-borne version.
If other countries developed such strains, they could use them
as weapons. They could even let terrorists have them. If it
is possible for Ebola to develop into an air-borne disease, it
might be good to know that and know how to deal it.
Why don't they do experiments on the current disease to see if
it can be spread in the air? I see people dressed up in those
suits, and it looks to me as if they are afraid it could be
spread through the air. If the only way you can catch it now is
by contact with body fluids, why wear the suits?
I would think too their time would be better spent trying to
figure out ways to combat all viruses.
#Post#: 9947--------------------------------------------------
Re: Scientists Debate Making Viruses More Dangerous In The Lab
By: guest6 Date: January 6, 2015, 10:44 pm
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I'm against it. I don't think the dangers are worth the risks.
People make mistakes and it only takes one mistake to cause a
human pandemic.
#Post#: 9951--------------------------------------------------
Re: Scientists Debate Making Viruses More Dangerous In The Lab
By: Brad Date: January 7, 2015, 10:44 am
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Pride always goes before the fall.
#Post#: 9959--------------------------------------------------
Re: Scientists Debate Making Viruses More Dangerous In The Lab
By: Kerry Date: January 7, 2015, 7:02 pm
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[quote author=Heartsong link=topic=957.msg9947#msg9947
date=1420605897]
I'm against it. I don't think the dangers are worth the risks.
People make mistakes and it only takes one mistake to cause a
human pandemic.
[/quote]Mistake or even theft. If someone could steal anthrax
from a lab and use it as a weapon, why should we believe new
strains of Ebola would be kept locked up safely?
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