Thursday, October 23, 2014

Harsh? Not too.

carl zimmer: Worrying about Ebola becoming airborne, in my  opinion, is like worrying about wolves evolving wingsI can't say I have much sympathy for people cancelling their flights to places like South Africa or India or London - or even domestically! - because of Ebola who are discovering that they can't get reimbursed. This fear-based reaction doesn't deserve to be catered to.

Your science-free bubble should be expensive.

(read this)

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5 Comments:

At 2:26 PM, October 23, 2014 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Actually, husband is concerned that Ebola virus might be genetically engineerable into something contagious via airborne spread.

 
At 3:35 PM, October 23, 2014 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

Genetic engineering is a very remote possibility - it's hard and there are plenty of diseases out there that are worse, much easier to get (many ARE airborne or spread by insects) and harder to treat. Okay, maybe on a battlefield Ebola would be a problem.

But worrying about genetic engineering, while (imo) somewhat foolish, is absolutely nowhere in the vicinity of being afraid to go to South Africa - so afraid you forfeit a $60,000 deposit - under current circumstances.

Ebola is hard to get. Nobody in America needs to be this panicked about it.

 
At 2:02 PM, October 26, 2014 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Agree that Ebola is hard to contract, but if it can be weaponized it could be a bad scene. Even if not genetically engineerable in the near future, imagine if suicide bombers were recruited abroad to be infected with the virus and soon fly abroad while still not symptomatic, then once the symptoms manifest they blow themselves to contagious smithereens in places filled with people -- the mind boggles. (I have no doubt but that terrorist masterminds thought of this long before I did).

But there are science grad students and post docs in genetic engineering (NOT on Ebola)), including some from nations known for terrorism, who could return home and be recruited to work on projects to try to make the virus airborne.

 
At 2:09 PM, October 26, 2014 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

Perhaps. But why should we panic about Ebola instead of all the other diseases out there?

 
At 12:27 PM, October 27, 2014 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Oh, I agree. It's not that genetic engineering of Ebola in an effort to make it airbornely(?) contagious is the highest priority right now, just that it can't be ignored, either.

 

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