US government urges scientists to censor findings on new strain of bird flu

Sal they already slaughter their own.
Think suicide bombers.
This is what bothered me in the article.

Sal, there are concerns that once you have destroyed something completely, there is no way to do more research on it e.g. to develop vaccines or drugs. This argument has been going on and on for Smallpox virus, which is only kept in two WHO designated laboratories: one in the US, and one in Russia. But there is always a sneaking suspicion that other countries may have stocks of smallpox virus.

The H5N1 virus in Hong Kong is not easily transmissible to humans. In fact, no naturally occurring H5N1 virus are easily transmissible to humans. When humans were infected, it did not transmit readily between humans either. Otherwise, we would have had a deadly H5N1 pandemic a long time ago. But it seems that transmissible strain have been purposefully created in these laboratories, possibly for pure scientific interest. In Hong Kong, there is no way this type of research would have been approved by the ethics committees here.

It is very likely that major powers such as U.S. Russia and China have already got something much more deadly than this in their inventory. I think the reason why the U.S. wanted this information to be suppressed was to prevent smaller countries such N. Korea from having a easy short cut to develop these weapons.

Kay, the reason why we only had 330 deaths was because the H5N1 strains were not easily transmissible to humans. When humans were infected, they did not pass the virus onto other humans either. But the theoretical risk of a major devastating pandemic is always there. That is if the virus gains the capability to transmit between humans easily. The H5N1 virus is taken very seriously by the WHO. This was one of the major reasons why they decided to appoint a previous Director of Health in Hong Kong to head the WHO.

When it comes to bird flu - I think the hype has been overblown. When you consider how many news reports and such generated - it's kind of strange to see the confirm number of deaths is about 330 globally.

The fear seems to be far out of proportion to the real threat from this virus. And now the same fear is extending into the research area. The study was to determine HOW the virus was able to go from bird to bird...to bird to human. Not surprising part of the study would be the potential of human to human. That research could be relevant for other such diseases (mad cow?).

I know people love their conspiracies but this one falls flat for me. The only outcry was from journals that exist for researchers publishing their results. Is the argument that research should not be done to gain knowledge - or that all research should be freely available even if there is risk involved?

Kay I don't see any conspiracy here.
I just think it's stupid to take something that could be deadly to humans and make it easier for humans to get.
I can understand studying the virus as is, but deciding it doesn't spread to humans easy enough and then mutating it so it does is just wrong.

I know, we don't have enough ways to kill ourselves yet so lets come up with some more:rolleyes:

I suppose "they" may in time discover links between DNA and what is loosely defined as race. Right now genetic differences between populations are very small. Genetic differences occur more on an individual level. We as humans are a much more homogeneous species than we like to think.

it did mutate - that was the point of the study. HOW did it make the transition? How likely is it to make further mutations that could be a BIG problem years from now.

When you understand how one transtion took place - and how another could take place - you have a platform to stop future mutation or reverse it.

When the Salk vaccine was introduced there were fears published about the potential of contaminating humans with diseases because Rhesus monkeys were used to make the vaccine. There were fears published that the vaccine would cause polio - and that it could inadvertently lead to other serious diseases.

That was in the 1950's - now we know how many lives were saved with that vaccine...but the fears at the time were widely publicized.

Point is, sometimes the value of research isn't apparent for a long time. Of course, sometimes the risks aren't apparent either.

Yeah people's attitudes are scary sometimes. This is not something that should be included in the chemistry sets we sell to kids, for sure. However - there will be a LOT of people exposed to this type of science just because they are scientists. When you think about all the people in symposiums that actually deal with these types of experiments and information even without general public knowledge, it's also a mistake to assume that just because it's "secret" means it isn't a danger. I'm a little loopy that they even play with this kind of crap in authorized conditions.

It's a real good idea not to get caught with Vit D3 and C deficiencies these days at the least. I remember what those first chapters of The Stand did to my brain - don't need a real life simulation of that one for cripes sake.

This is not even within the power of the US government to censor. One of the journals "Nature" is based in the UK, and one of the research work was carried out in the Netherlands. The urging would have been at the initiative of the US CDC. I worked with their influenza branch when they visited Hong Kong following the first human isolate of H5N1 in 1997. They are very professional people and would not recommend censorship lightly.

The theoretical basis behind specific mutations are well known. It is just that two laboratories went as far as to introduce them into native H5N1 strains on purpose, and thereby producing a virus that has the potential to kill millions. Just imagine what N. Korea could do with this virus. Instead of blackmailing neighbors with nuclear weapons, they could blackmail the entire world.