Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Censorship Doesn't Just Stifle Speech — It Can Cause Disease To Spread

Posted by Soulskill on from the information-wants-to-be-free-and-so-do-viruses dept.

Lasrick writes "Maryn McKenna at Wired explores fears of a pandemic of MERS after October's hajj to Saudi Arabia, the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holy sites: 'The reason is MERS: Middle East respiratory syndrome, a disease that has been simmering in the region for months. The virus is new, recorded in humans for the first time in mid-2012. It is dire, having killed more than half of those who contracted it. And it is mysterious, far more so than it should be—because Saudi Arabia, where the majority of cases have clustered, has been tight-lipped about the disease's spread, responding slowly to requests for information and preventing outside researchers from publishing their findings about the syndrome.'"

2 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. How dire? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is dire, having killed more than half of those who contracted it.

    That's not a measure of direness by itself. How contractable is it?

    (I'll make the obvious joke myself that it's highly contractable, since "MERS" has a lot fewer letters than "Middle East respiratory syndrome")

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  2. Re:Censorship can stop more than that by VortexCortex · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wasn't there a children's nursery rhyme about the loss of a kingdom for want of a nail?

    Ah yes, I remember it well...

    Kindly said, "They know not what they do,"
    Advised instead, "Rope can not hold this Jew!"
    From crossed timbers made spell,
    And chosen kingdom fell,
    The Immortal's now locked up with Xenu.