Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim

[lovuian]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aShZig0Cig4g&refer=canada

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” Gibbs said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots of others.”

The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.

A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.
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He's 75 and telling it like it is
Its man made

[MADem]

1. A laboratory escape? But... but... everyone was so eager to hang the Smithfield ham people high!!

Hell, they found the tree, they got the rope, they made the noose, and they hitched up the team to the buckboard.

All that was left was to round up the "guilty" bastards and sanctimoniously tell them to say their prayers as they marched them to their doom....and now you're telling us, and them, that the hanging party is on hold?

[Maru Kitteh]

2. Ubelievably stupid. Really.

Viruses are among the most prolific and enduring of biological mechanisms on the planet and may hold the keys to the very origins of life itself. We have not 1.0 x 10(14) of natures capability to "create" a virus. THAT is completely stupid. We have enough *ucking trouble trying to "grow" them.

How many people did the "regular" influenza virus kill, just yesterday? Just here?

Put the Alcoa taffeta away.


As for Smithfield? (and other factory farm corporations) Yeah, they're STILL ugly inhuman assholes for visiting ecological disaster all over the planet, especially in rural Mexico and other places, where the community can't fight back.

Screw. Them.