Deadly Virus Created!

New Flu Strain Created For Research Leaves The Human Immune System Completely Defenseless New Flu Strain Created For Research Leaves The Human Immune System Completely Defenseless A scientist who carried out research on making influenza viruses more infectious has deliberately created a potentially lethal strain of flu that can evade the human immune system. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has genetically manipulated the 2009 strain of pandemic flu in order for it to “escape” the control of the immune system’s neutralising antibodies, effectively making the human population defenceless against its reemergence. Most of the world today has developed some level of immunity to the 2009 pandemic flu virus, which means that it can now be treated as less dangerous “seasonal flu”. Professor Kawaoka intentionally set out to see if it was possible to convert it to a pre-pandemic state in order to analyse the genetic changes involved, the Independent said. The study is not published, however some scientists who are aware of it are deeply concerned that Dr Kawaoka was allowed to deliberately remove the only defence against a strain of flu virus that has already demonstrated its ability to create a deadly pandemic that killed as many as 500,000 people in the first year of its emergence. Professor Kawaoka has so far kept his research secret but admitted that the work is complete and ready for submission to a scientific journal. The experiment was designed to monitor the changes to the 2009 H1N1 strain of virus that would enable it to escape immune protection in order to improve the design of vaccines, he said. “Through selection of immune escape viruses in the laboratory under appropriate containment conditions, we were able to identify the key regions [that] would enable 2009 H1N1 viruses to escape immunity,” Professor Kawaoka said in an email. “Viruses in clinical isolates have been identified that have these same changes in the [viral protein]. This shows that escape viruses emerge in nature and laboratory studies like ours have relevance to what occurs in nature,” he said. Prior to his statement to The Independent, Professor Kawaoka’s only known public mention of the study was at a closed scientific meeting earlier this year. He declined to release any printed details of his talk or his lecture slides. The work was carried out at Wisconsin University’s $12m (£7.5m) Institute for Influenza Virus Research in Madison which was built specifically to house Professor Kawaoka’s laboratory, which has a level-3-agriculture category of biosafety: one below the top safety level for the most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola virus. However, this study was done at the lower level-2 biosafety. The university has said repeatedly that there is little or no risk of an accidental escape from the lab, although a similar US Government lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta with a higher level-3 biosafety rating was recently criticised over the accidental exposure of at least 75 lab workers to possible anthrax infection. Professor Kawaoka’s work had been cleared by Wisconsin’s Institutional Biosafety Committee, but some members of the committee were not informed about details of the antibody study on pandemic H1N1, which began in 2009, and have voiced concerns about the direction, oversight and safety of his overall research on flu viruses. Rebecca Moritz, who is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s work on “select agents” such as influenza virus, said that Professor Kawaoka’s work on 2009 H1N1 is looking at the changes to the virus that are needed for existing vaccines to become ineffective. “With that being said, this work is not to create a new strain of influenza with pandemic potential, but [to] model the immune-pressure the virus is currently facing in our bodies to escape our defences,” Ms Moritz said. “The work is designed to identify potential circulating strains to guide the process of selecting strains used for the next vaccine…The committee found the biosafety containment procedures to be appropriate for conducting this research. I have no concerns about the biosafety of these experiments,” she said. Professor Kawaoka said that he has presented preliminary findings of his H1N1 study to the WHO, which were “well received”. “We are confident our study will contribute to the field, particularly given the number of mutant viruses we generated and the sophisticated analysis applied,” he said. “There are risks in all research. However, there are ways to mitigate the risks. As for all the research on influenza viruses in my laboratory, this work is performed by experienced researchers under appropriate containment and with full review and prior approval by the [biosafety committee],” he added. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/yoshih...train-for-resear-2014-7#ixzz36HiHzhTe

"A scientist who carried out research on making influenza viruses more infectious"

what the fuck, why are people working on shit like this? This shit is much worse then someone commuting murder IMO. This is is is the premise for the 12 Monkeys movie

i thought of batman rises. human's are a curious breed. feels like one of those things that doesn't need to be published.

i blame Obama

In b4 we're all dead

It was stated in the article that the purpose is to make vaccines more effective toward influenza. The influenza virus mutates all the time, so being able to create something like this can really help us against possible mutations, although its very vague what it is he is really creating, or the mechanism of how this will help us. But it seems like if he can create something like this, he will be able to create a vaccine that can stop it. Long story short its my opinion that he's creating this to be able to form a legitimate vaccine against a form of influenza before it mutates. I could be wrong, but it makes sense especially because he's getting 12 million funded by the university.

world war Z

If this were done with bad intentions you wouldnt hear news about it, this is most likely retarded sensacionalism

On July 03 2014 05:31 Baalim wrote: If this were done with bad intentions you wouldnt hear news about it, this is most likely retarded sensacionalism

sensationalism? don't try and mix socialism into this too haha.

and iono, i really hope it's hard and not too overly detailed/outlined on how to replicate this process, it does make me feel a bit uneasy about the potential for bio-terrorism.

yeaah I agree with baal.

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

On July 03 2014 12:19 JosephCalgary wrote: yeaah I agree with baal.

+2

News are always like that because that it what sells.

You probably wouldn't be sharing this if it read

"New Flu Strain Created For Research Leaves The Human Immune System *a little bit* Defenseless"

Nuclear fusion was created with good intents

im not even worried about ebola

On July 03 2014 19:30 Floofy wrote: Nuclear fusion was created with good intents

Pretty sure the Manhattan Project didnt have good intentions

On July 03 2014 19:30 Floofy wrote: Nuclear fusion was created with good intents

Excerpt from the letter of Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt which initiated the Manhattan project.

"In the course of the last four months it has been made probable - through the work of Joliet in France as well as Zermi and Szilard in America = that iy may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements could be generated. Now it appears certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable - though much less certain - that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air."

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_einstein_letter.htm

I would have to say the undertaking of the Manhattan project wasn't exactly about cheap power for the masses.