Viruses 'R Us

[Walker88]

Whether it’s the ease of global travel, the increase in the planet’s temperature, evolution, or some other factor, there’s never been a better time to be a virus.

 

Beginning in around 1980, virus have begun arising at a faster and faster clip. Back then HIV emerged. Since then we’ve faced CV-19, various Bird Flus, various Swine Flus, Ebola, SARS, MERS, Zika, West Nile…the list goes on and on. Some are spread by mosquitoes, some by bat guano or rat droppings, some by other animals, and many can be passed human to human. Medicine has been able to control but one (HIV), while some have treatments that can aid recovery, and some were ringfenced early enough that their spread was halted. None has resulted in a vaccine. After polio, smallpox and measles, few viruses other than the yearly common flu have been met with a vaccine. Perhaps one will be found for CV-19, but that is almost irrelevant.

 

It’s irrelevant because new viruses are arising too fast. Even if a vaccine for CV-19 is discovered, developed, tested, and deployed, it’s likely---based on the last 40 years---that we’ll be facing another virus before we even cure CV-19.

 

That is the world we now occupy.

 

To make matters even worse, international terror groups like al Qaeda began to recruit expert biochemists and pathologists two decades ago and tasked them with developing a bio-pathogen that can be released into society. ISIS recently parroted that by recruiting its own experts. CV-19 is of particular interest to terrorists because it is the first corona virus that can be spread by people who show no symptoms. Neither SARS nor MERS viruses had that capability. Ideally, from a terrorist point of view, any bio-pathogen their labs produce will share that trait so that it can be ubiquitous in its spread.

 

We live in a time when we view governments as all powerful, and to an extent this is true. Should governments so choose, all citizens can be monitored, analyzed, followed, and in some ways controlled. We also live in a time, however, where the single individual has never been more powerful. A single skilled biochemist has the potential to produce and release a pathogen that could wipe out all human life. Intel agencies can monitor threats in a broad sense, even rifling in a bit to isolated threats. Nobody, however, can monitor, uncover, or identify everyone who has an ax to grind. We are vulnerable to the kind of evil once relegated to James Bond movies.

 

Yes, this is the world we now occupy. Act accordingly.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Walker88
spacing

[Relocated]

13 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

e live in a time when we view governments as all powerful,

I disagree. 

The side influenced by medias overshadows which is not.

[brokenbone]

nah... virus had it easier before humans invented vaccine,

but agree governments, groups and individuals can cause calamity

on an unprecedented scale

https://www.history.com/news/pandemics-end-plague-cholera-black-death-smallpox

Edited May 17, 2020 by brokenbone