

Recreating the 1918 Flu Virus That Killed 40M People - mhb
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/the-man-who-could-destroy-the-world-breakthrough-awards-2014

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CapitalistCartr
This is idiotic. Of course we should research viruses. Thoroughly. Of course
it's dangerous. So is getting out of bed in the morning; so is driving to
work. Not researching viruses is far more dangerous than what he's doing. Life
is a series of risk assessments; this is a good one. Asking the question
should be a formality for the journalist. Giving it more than a paragraph of
coverage is exhibiting ignorance of the most basic level of medical
understanding.

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saturdaysaint
Well apparently more than a few domain experts agree with the thrust of the
article - [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/white-house-to-cut-
fund...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/white-house-to-cut-funding-for-
risky-biological-study.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share)

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maxerickson
This article is okay, but it is a shining example of the recent, disappointing
editorial shift at PM. It's always been aimed at a popular audience (haha),
but recently, there is a focus on articles with a strong narrative and lots of
relatable human moments (He likes jazz!), with little or no actual
information.

I mean, the risk of different animal strains mixing in the wild is presented
as the Hokey-Pokey, you put the bird flu in, you put the swine flu in, you
shake it all about, etc.

There's also stupid misinformation presented about dangerous things; two I
remember are a warning not to use an uninsulated tool to cut a live wire
(especially for their audience, just don't do it!) and a warning to back off
of ABS brakes if you need to steer.

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ghshephard
Okay, I'll bite - what misinformation is there in warning people not to use an
uninsulated tool to cut a live wire? Seems like good advice to me.

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maxerickson
People simply shouldn't cut live wires (unplug, pull battery, etc.).

Whatever exceptions there might be aren't terribly relevant to the general
readership of Popular Mechanics.

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Vernon092
Isn't humanity resistant to this virus now?

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hga
I gather we're not "immunologically immune" to it ... but then again a lot of
olders seemed to have greater immunity to it.

Once you get the surface proteins replicated, you can test them against a bank
of sera of current people and look for antibody reactions.

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kurokikaze
What could possibly go wrong?

