February 25, 2004

The Stand should be required reading for biologists. It's bad enough that bird flu might jump species - so let's help it along! Does this give anyone else the creeps?

And how long before the engineered strain joins various countries' bioweapons arsenals?

posted by rodgerd 20 years ago
  • 1918 Influenza Pandemic: "The origins of this influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus." Now I can see why the virologists are edgy about this one.
  • The next step would be to inject the new hybrid into animals to see how it behaves. Ferrets would be used first, then perhaps monkeys. WHAT?!?
  • I vote we look into ways to mutate the virus, so that it doesn't kill it's host, it merely destroys the reasoning parts of the brain, the pain receptors, and instills in it's host a ghoulish hunger for human flesh. Who wouldn't want to be part of the team responsible for ending the world after all?
  • Pez- does the organization seeking to make us flesh eating zombies have a free continental breakfast. if the answer is yes, than I'm in. Influenza would be a silly bioweapon. The whole reason the flu is recurrently lethal is because its genes mutate so often. An attack might take out a chunk of population when first released but then the survivors would be immune and the virus might have mutated into a less virulent form. Of course scientests could maybe slow the rate of genetic change and try to stabalize the virulence and maybe give it some 20" chrome wheels and make it breath fire too, that would be one bad ass flu.
  • Does this give anyone else the creeps? Well, not really. Growing weird stuff in labs is a big part of What Biologists Do, isn't it? But I see where you're coming from. Even maybe better than reading The Stand would be watching 28 Days Later; less time commitment and less paranormal activity for those busy scientists to endure. :) Oooh, and I got my Obligatory Monkey Reference in! :D Ahem; anyway, here's another article. Virii are completely unpredictable and it's not a bad idea to investigate what might be in store for us if the bird flu gets totally out of control. Then again, unless we were to test on humans, we wouldn't really have any idea what to predict, so, bah, it's creepy. ;) Spooky: Yes, *human* influenza would be an ineffective bioweapon, unless you were just trying to eliminate infants and the elderly!
  • unless you were just trying to eliminate infants and the elderly! Both of which are generally the first thing an enemy worries about during an attack. Of course most of the gov seems to be made up of white guys old enough to be in diapers so a flu attack would wipe them out leaving only...ZOMBIE STROM THURMOND!
  • Spooky: you may be on to something!!!!!!
  • When pigs fly!
  • So the elderly and the kids are killed off, leaving your enemy really fucking pissed and with less to worry about at home... Yeah, that's a good plan.