

Scientists to Pause Research on Deadly Strain of Bird Flu - tokenadult
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/science/scientists-to-pause-research-on-deadly-strain-of-bird-flu.html

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jballanc
This is the worst possible outcome. If 10 passages through the lab animals was
sufficient for the virus to become transmissible by air, then this _will_
happen in nature. Not being able to share with other members of the world-wide
flu monitoring network what they need to be watching for is irresponsible at
best.

The fact that this variant of the virus was formed relatively easily, however,
leads me to believe that there is a reason that it hasn't been found in the
wild yet. It could be that transmission in ferrets is _not_ exactly like
transmission in humans. It could be that this variant is transmissible by air
in a lab setting, but is critically vulnerable to environmental factors in the
wild. Regardless of the explanation, _there is something vital and important
that can be learned through further research_...

But _OH NOES THE TERRERISTS!!!1!_

You know, Caesar was just trying to protect Rome when the library in
Alexandria burned. Those who have the most are willing to loose the least but,
as they say, nothing ventured nothing gained...

The future of scientific progress no longer lies with the United States of
America.

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sliverstorm
_You know, Caesar was just trying to protect Rome when the library in
Alexandria burned._

Sorry, but _what_? What does the accidental burning of a library have to do
with this?

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jballanc
There is a real risk in putting national security above all else. Leaders
often make the mistake of believing that those with the greatest military
might succeed, when in fact it is those societies with the greatest technology
that have _always_ lead the world.

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sliverstorm
I'm sorry, but in a time when invading armies raped, pillaged, and killed at
their own discretion, defending and thus _staying alive_ is a much higher
priority than saving your library. Especially when surrendering to the
invaders would probably have gotten the library ransacked & burned anyway.

You cannot reap the rewards of technology fifty years from now if you are
beheaded by a mercenary today.

If you need a simple analogy, think of the Civilizations series. (Or, hell,
_any_ game with a research/tech tree). Research wins games, but only if you
survived the initial stages!

~~~
jballanc
Name a period in history when the most powerful society was not also the most
technologically advanced.

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rjurney
On the one hand, this constitutes a weapon of mass destruction and should
never be created by civilians in a lab.

On the other... if it is this easy to do, so that two virology teams can do
it... then it needs to be done, somewhere. Is open academia that place?

I would imagine that knowing what genes need to mutate, that we could test for
them to early detect an outbreak. Also, we could target anti-virals or other
treatments against those segments.

Scary stuff.

~~~
UnFleshedOne
Those things would only get more frequent and easier as the science
progresses. I think the best shot to avoid a major disaster is to progress the
science far and fast enough so that the consequences are not that severe. For
example getting to a point where an "universal" antiviral agent (with an easy
to update/modify "database" of targets) is possible.

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JamesBlair
Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3279225>

