I may never sleep again. I have just read that the U.S. government is ending its ban on creating lethal viruses. Just what we all want for our tax dollars the creation of more super bugs. According to a scientist from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), work can now begin on the creation of new super viruses. Hooray! I wonder if the NIH knows it is supposed to keep us healthy. Some scientists applaud this because they could show how viruses like the bird flu can mutate to infect humans and will help with creating new vaccines. Other scientists, the sane ones in my judgment, are against this. They say researchers risk creating a monster germ that can escape the lab and create a pandemic. Is anybody as nervous as I am?
But proponents say that a government panel will judge what experiments are sound. And, of course, they will be done in a high security lab. There are two words that worry me more than monster bugs- and they are: government panels.
Government panels have given us such swell ideas as the new tax plan for the middle class that gives all the money to the rich. Government panels have decided how we spend our military budget which is larger than the next ten countries put together. And let’s not forget it was government panels that have interpreted that our founding fathers intent was for all citizens to own as many machine guns as they can afford. But in all fairness, they have drawn the line at allowing us to own bazookas- at least for now.
Shouldn’t we trust government panels? Haven’t they kept us all safe so far?
In 2014 federal funding was stopped when the public became aware that scientists were endeavoring to make the Bird Flu, SAARS virus and MERS more dangerous than they occur in nature. What can be the next move? How we can ramp up earth quakes or strengthen volcanoes- oh yeah- I bet you they are working on plans for that right now.
A scientist from the NIH notes that the new regulation applies to any pathogen that can potentially cause a pandemic. For example, the article states they could try to develop an Ebola virus that can be transmitted through the air. Wow! That’s an exciting prospect.
A scientist says that they want to make sure they are doing this right. I imagine that is where the government panels come in.
In 2011 an outcry arose when laboratories in Wisconsin and the Netherlands were engineering the Bird Flu to make it easier to jump from birds to humans using ferrets as the link. They also published some results which they later admitted might be helpful to bio-terrorists. Well everyone needs help sometimes.
Currently I’m breathing in and out of a paper bag.
Don’t worry about a thing. The government is on this with secure labs, except when they’re not. Like the time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidently exposed lab workers to Anthrax in 2014. They also shipped a deadly flu virus to a lab that asked for a benign strain.
According to the NY Times article I read, Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist who directs the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard School of Public Health said this kind of research has given us some modest scientific knowledge and done almost nothing to improve our preparedness for pandemics, and yet risked creating an accidental pandemic. Therefore, he hoped the government panels would turn down such work.
Of course, private laboratories with private funding can do this work. (We are losing control here.) I should think that Dr. Frankenstein and all the other mad scientists have been born before their time. Have no fear I’m sure there are plenty of mad scientists left. Our only hope is that the new tax plan will not only leave no money for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security but also none for these experiments.
Anyway, when my wife asks me what I want for my birthday I’ll tell her a Hazmat suit.