Researchers studying a potentially more lethal, airborne version of bird flu have suspended their studies because of concerns the mutant virus they have created could be used as a devastating form of bioterrorism or accidentally escape the lab.

In a letter published in the journals Nature and Science on Friday, 39 scientists defended the research as crucial to public health efforts.

But they are bowing to fear that has become widespread since media reports discussed the studies, and their possible fallout, in December.

Fears were raised that the engineered viruses may escape from the laboratories - not unlike the frightful scenario in the 1971 science fiction movie The Andromeda Strain - or possibly be used to create a bioterror weapon.

Among the scientists who signed the letter were leaders of the two teams that have spearheaded the research, at Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as well as influenza experts at institutions ranging from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the University of Hong Kong.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1k8ZKQyK8

Don't forget - it's 2012! THE WORLD IS DOOMED!!!!!

Don't worry... next year it will be 2013, and the world will still be doomed. This is just another loaded bomb which might hit us any time.

Saw a 2011 film called 'Contagion' the other day. Best film of it's genre I've seen. Shows how quick a virus could wipe out most on the planet.

from Wiki:

Contagion is a 2011 medical thriller disaster film directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film has an ensemble cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet.^[2] Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal indirect contact transmission virus (fomite transmission) that kills within days.^[3] As the fast-moving pandemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than does the virus itself. As the virus spreads around the world, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart. Their efforts are hindered by a less-than-ethical media sensation who hypes a snake oil as a cure just for money, as well as playing on fears to collect a large fan base.

The film had a production budget of $60 million, and filming took place in countries around the world. It premiered on September 3, 2011, at the 68th Venice Film Festival and was publicly released to critical acclaim on September 9, 2011, in the United States, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, and four other territories

Why do they make things like this? For what?

Someone please give those 'scientist' a beat down for inventing something that will only take life.

Why do they make things like this? For what?

Someone please give those 'scientist' a beat down for inventing something that will only take life.

As with the AIDS virus, these are developed by scientists in order to have a serious-but-controllable base from which to develop anti-viral protective solutions - just in case they're needed.

AIDS from Fort Dix, I believe.

Why do they make things like this? For what?

Someone please give those 'scientist' a beat down for inventing something that will only take life.

Agreed it is amazing that folks will create or even try to create something so devastating without any prior thought/need to also realize

the potential for it to get out of hand/control.

I know it is a chicken & the egg which came first scenario but to claim they need to create something terrible to enable the study of it

to create a cure seems nefarious at best.

Same thing for technology supposedly created to help like Nuclear energy

Yes it has its benefits but it was not long after starting that they realized they had no technology capable of disposing properly the waste

generated by it. But do they stop producing the waste till such a time as they develop a technology to deal with it? No...

Instead they store it underwater until it can be shielded by concrete etc. then deep in the earth till someone comes up with an idea....

Or until it is stable ( non-radioactive) which the believe takes thousands of years

Wonder if that has an effect on the earth?

I don't know about progress at times

Why do they make things like this? For what?

Someone please give those 'scientist' a beat down for inventing something that will only take life.

As with the AIDS virus, these are developed by scientists in order to have a serious-but-controllable base from which to develop anti-viral protective solutions - just in case they're needed.

AIDS from Fort Dix, I believe.

I understand what your talking about...99% of the population wouldn't

Why do they make things like this? For what?

Someone please give those 'scientist' a beat down for inventing something that will only take life.

Agreed it is amazing that folks will create or even try to create something so devastating without any prior thought/need to also realize

the potential for it to get out of hand/control.

I know it is a chicken & the egg which came first scenario but to claim they need to create something terrible to enable the study of it

to create a cure seems nefarious at best.

Same thing for technology supposedly created to help like Nuclear energy

Yes it has its benefits but it was not long after starting that they realized they had no technology capable of disposing properly the waste

generated by it. But do they stop producing the waste till such a time as they develop a technology to deal with it? No...

Instead they store it underwater until it can be shielded by concrete etc. then deep in the earth till someone comes up with an idea....

Or until it is stable ( non-radioactive) which the believe takes thousands of years

Wonder if that has an effect on the earth?

I don't know about progress at times

Yes, its ridiculous especially with radioactive materials all this technology and the only thing we can do with it is heat water to make steam to power turbines.

Seems like inventions/discoveries that will help mankind are always repressed because there is no profit from them. Or they take the profit away from something else.

Sinister inventions like the mentioned killer flu virus scare people into vaccinations. Remember the Avian flu that scared the world ? I believe the health industry is one of the most corrupt groups on the planet. I have NEVER been to a doctor in my life for a check up and have had minimal vaccinations more than 30 years ago. But other people that i know are habitually ill, and they have been seeing supposed physicians since their early teens.

I believe they were also working with it to see if it COULD be airborne and transmissible between humans, and yes, turns out it can. If it can do that when encouraged to do so in the lab, it could do that out in the real world- whether or not the human-engineered one gets loose- so they know they have to prepare for that, too.

AIDS from Fort Dix, I believe.

I understand what your talking about...99% of the population wouldn't

That does not mean that either of you is right.

I believe the SARS virus was airborne . Bird flu can be avoided if you refrain from blowing up chickens <deleted> .