Remember the whole bird flu scare of a year or
two ago? We dodged that bullet, so what are scientists doing now?
You guessed it: creating a new strain of the avian flu virus that can
jump from species to species. And this is supposedly in the name of
protecting our health? Really, scientists, isn’t there some cure for
disease you could be working on?
Previously there was concern that the H5N1 virus
would jump between birds to infect humans. And, when we were warned about
a possible pandemic, scientists
agreed on a moratorium to prevent the creation of new strains of this
virus…to prevent any new strains from passing from birds to humans. Yet
here they are only one year later…trying to CREATE a new strain of this
virus. Scientists are changing the H5N1 avian flu virus in the lab to
make it transmissible between mammals through “respiratory droplets”—in this
case ferrets. According
to the news reports, Dutch virologists will be attempting to understand how
the bird virus could spread through the air to humans. News reports
suggest that the experiments will begin in weeks.
The same research was considered a biosecurity
threat only a year ago. Now, we’re supposed to believe that it is in our
best interests? I don’t think so.
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