While We Weren't Watching
Mineral Man had a satirical piece up in an earlier thread about Republicans secretly planning for an epidemic to solve the Debt Problem, a problem which will now mushroom after the GOP’s genius Tax Deform Bill and the impending healthcare crisis.
Satire always has a cornerstone of truth.
What is not satire is the announcement yesterday that the Federal funding ban on producing deadly viruses had been lifted.
What could possibly go wrong??
You may recall the ban was put into place after a public outcry regarding several missteps/accidents at NIH labs: one involving lab workers being exposed to anthrax, another where a deadly strain of virus was shipped between laboratories and the revelation that scientists in the program were working to develop a lethal strain of bird flu.
Yikes!
Ostensibly, all this work in mutating viruses to their more deadly relatives is a proactive measure in order to develop effective vaccines. Better to be prepared for an outbreak, the argument goes, then be caught defenseless if and when a large swath of the population is infected.
That’s the theory, at least.
My logical, rational mind can embrace the research idea because we know from medical literature that we’re merely a few steps away from a full-blown pandemic. Of some sort.
The Spanish flu after WWI killed between 20-40 million people worldwide. Some medical historians claim 50 million or more. It’s estimated half of the patients died from pneumonia, complicated by the high incidence of TB. This was before antibiotics, of course. But then, there’s the depressing news that our antibiotics are not as effective due to overuse, which has allowed bacteria to mutate in an increasingly deadly fashion.
So my rational mind says research = good; zombie apocalypse = bad.
But then, my more imaginative, suspicious mind conjures up dark scenarios where viruses are mishandled, accidents happen and/or the research to benefit mankind turns sinister. Watching Netflix’s recent series Wormwood didn’t help quell these darker thoughts (fascinating series, btw).
As it turns out, my layman’s misgivings are shared by a number of researchers, people who seem fully cognizant of risks vs. benefits. The good news in the New York Times’ article and several other publications is that a series of review processes have been put into place to mitigate further mishaps and/or dangers. And discussion continues between scientists about the merits of the research and how findings should be handled (not a good idea, for instance, to hand out recipes for enhanced viruses to the general public. Ya think?).
I’ll probably continue to rock back and forth between my logical mind and my zombie apocalypse mindset on this issue. The research moratorium hasn’t been given much playtime because of the Trump drama du jour and most recent Tax monstrosity. Still, it’s something to be aware of because lots can happen while we’re all distracted at the 3-ring circus.
I suspect that’s a feature, not a bug.
= new reply since forum marked as read
these are precisely the thoughts that passed through my mind when I read that this morning, I just couldn't articulate them.
