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A Federal Ban On Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted (nytimes.com)
schwit1 shares a report from The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): Federal officials on Tuesday ended a moratorium imposed three years ago on funding research that alters germs to make them more lethal. Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
Critics say these researchers risk creating a monster germ that could escape the lab and seed a pandemic. Now, a government panel will require that researchers show that their studies in this area are scientifically sound and that they will be done in a high-security lab. The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat, and the work must produce knowledge -- such as a vaccine -- that would benefit humans. Finally, there must be no safer way to do the research. "We see this as a rigorous policy," Dr. Collins said. "We want to be sure we're doing this right." "Now where are those twelve monkeys?" adds schwit1.
Critics say these researchers risk creating a monster germ that could escape the lab and seed a pandemic. Now, a government panel will require that researchers show that their studies in this area are scientifically sound and that they will be done in a high-security lab. The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat, and the work must produce knowledge -- such as a vaccine -- that would benefit humans. Finally, there must be no safer way to do the research. "We see this as a rigorous policy," Dr. Collins said. "We want to be sure we're doing this right." "Now where are those twelve monkeys?" adds schwit1.
So long as Will Smith survives, we'll be fine.
The Stand, Act One
and paste
With reports of significant amount of published research being bogus, how can we trust someone when they say there's no alternative and they are doing it in a secure facility with strict safety protocols? And secure not just against the germs, but also against outsiders.
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
"This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original..."
Charles Montgomery Burns biological warfare lab is going to reopen with nuclear power
Because This is How You Get ZOMBIES!
Deja vu!
A glitch in the Matrix or some drifting is happening right now!
There is scientific research and then there is outright stupidity. Allowing this to happen now is yet another example of just how fucking stupid and uninformed the government and more specifically this administration is. No matter the safe guards in place to protect the public from release, this shit will get out and kill. These fucking morons are simply out of control.
Who else thinks this lab should be located somewhere isolated like Antartica, Assencion Island or middle of a very desolate desert ?
Someplace where the risk of "12 monkeys" exposure disasters are minimized.
I really don't like the lab located in an area with an active civilian population and scientists that go home every night.
We get enough exposure to the new flu strains from having school age children in the family, without a better engineered killer version possible.
Germ & chemical warfare is morally & ethically bankrupt.
nuclear warfare is just environmentally stupid.
> ... only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks.
Why does that not make me feel even slightly safe?
The rest of the world didn't care about the ban, and neither would domestic terrorists, so it's not really like we're any less safe than before. This should, in theory, allow us to find the "low-hanging fruit" as far as lethal modifications is concerned. Since that's very likely where malicious actors would look, we should be looking too. Only then can we plan a defense against them.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Or shooting elephants just to cut off their tails as trophies.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Speaking purely as a biotechnologist with no interest in creating world ending viruses (virii?).
Will the genetic sequences of these viruses be available on the genome databases hosted by the NIH, the NCBI? (National Center for Biological Information).
For those of you who don't know, the U.S. Govt. hosts basically all known genomic data for many many species on the NCBI in the form of complete DNA sequences. If you downloaded the sequences for some of these viruses, you could, with the help of a DNA synthesizer (about $10K-$40K), make some of them. Once injected into a suitable host, they would self-assemble into virulent particles capable of transmittal.
From what I understand, some of the newer DNA synthesizers "phone home" to tell the appropriate government agencies what you're up to. Also, perhaps there is some mechanism at the NCBI to prevent/monitor you when you attempt to download these sequences.
Of course, the problem with biological weapons is that they are notoriously hard to control, in fact the first victim(s) may very well be their creator. However for those with apocalyptic visions of paradise after death (70 virgins), that may not be a deterrent.
We found something else we can blame Trump for now!! Woooohooooo!!
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Schwit1; the article linked doesn't mention germs, so why did you?
There is scientific research and then there is outright stupidity
Wouldn't "outright stupidity" be tying scientists hands so they were unable to study things like extremely contagious bird flu well before it ever reaches the U.S. as an epidemic?
You seriously need to read up on the conditions under which this is allowed, and why they are allowing it.
Under your doctrine the U.S. would eventually have an unstoppable epidemic of some kind; under the rule change we may have a chance to stop it.
I think I saw a tweet once to the effect of "If Trump cured cancer, Trump Haters would back cancer". Apparently that was a prescient thought, as you seem to be on the side of sticking our heads in the sand and waiting for the virus to come for us.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Fortunately, it's just a stuttering virus.
I can't be the only one that noticed this "typo":
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine. Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
Yes, the summary repeated two sentences - how did the editors not catch this before publication? Furthermore, remember how all the smart kids - under the previous administration - "restored science in it's rightful place"? It was those kids, three years ago, that chose to ban scientific research, no matter the benefit! Now the current administration actually lifts the ban and restores scientific research that has a demonstrable benefit, and because their candidate didn't with the last election they have taken a 180 and now oppose scientific research.
I wonder if they changes their position on Stem Cell Research as well?
Ken
Equifax will encode SSN, DoB, Address, 1st pet name, mother's maiden name and any other personal information they can get on everyone into the DNA of the deadly viruses and the next time they leak the information en masse no-one will be worried about getting credit protection.
Nullius in verba
This is the real reason. With CRISPR, the bar to designing custom viruses has been lowered so better to get a jump on what the bad actors could do.
Time to activate Wildfire
Nullius in verba
You have been modded down because we have tons of mod points now. Your pathetic arguments are wasted here. Go elsewhere, conservatard.
It WILL happen again!
Anime Janai!
Nevermind.. move a long..
... if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks.
Sounds like code for pharmas need new blockbuster drugs...
.... in fact the first victim(s) may very well be their creator... that may not be a deterrent.
Sounds like a lot of jobs for summer hires and interns
1. Those cities desperately need economic investment, and science experiments such as this come with BIG BUDGET
2. Those cities have plenty of wasted space --- no need to pull down any existing building if the existing buildings were all burnt down
3. In cases of outbreak, the toxin will go to the big lakes and the ungrateful Canadians will get it first, while most Americans will be spared
Plus,
4. The wind blows mainly from the West, meaning.
So if the germs / virus spread, they spread eastward, and cities in between Chicago/Detroit and the Atlantic Ocean are mostly blue color, filled with snowflakes who hate America, anyways
I bought all this crap several years ago, then they made a law that I couldn't use said crap. Now not only can I make virii to evolve humanity the way I want it to evolve, I get a nice fricken tax break for it! Whooo Hooo, MAGA!!!!
Why does NO ONE EVER CALL THESE EDITORS OUT?
People do. At a rate of about 3-4 per submission. It doesn't help.
So the bad actors can steal it?
Insurance does not work like that. Insurance moves money around, it does not magically take the damage away. If a trillion dollars worth of damage is done, the world production will be severely affected, and many innocent people will still be hurt.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
Insurance does not work like that. Insurance moves money around, it does not magically take the damage away.
Yes.... that's why they should be required to pay what premium insurance will require to cover $1 Trillion in liability.
To make sure at least SOME of the risk is leveled directly on the head of the people and organization that will be doing the research.
And not every random weenie who thinks they might have a good reason to put the public at risk gets to do that without also
making a significant tangible commitment and putting up some of their own skin into the game to show how sure they are that they can execute and cleanup after their work safely.
Invariably, this means the qualified insurance company is going to charge a significant amount of money upfront to take on such massive risk and issue the bond ---- including imposing more meaningful safety protocols, protective requirements, advisor review, on them, etc than some random board of academics would even imagine.
No we haven't. That's a ridiculous statement.
Ethics are important to science, and now smore than ever since science now is abused for politics.
Remember Bayer and Krupp?
Of so called 'secure facilities' leaking dangerous bacteria and viruses on an almost continuous basis.
Chernobyl could not explode because it was constructed with heavy lids on top of the reactors, which would be strong enough to contain any explosion if any should ever occur.
Jesus. Stop it, it's embarrassing. You have no fucking clue.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Whatever this is must be bad because OMG TRUMP won't let anybody do any science anymore. That's a settled fact because Slashdot comments said so (oh and he's a RUSSIAN SPY TOO!)
So obviously this isn't science, it's uh.. capitalism... and is therefore not science.
Sounds like you're claiming someone has this opinion. Go ahead and give the link. Otherwise... stop playing with dolls, presumably you're a grown-up?
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
They just want more people to binge watch The Last Ship.
I would agree although I'd have said it in a much less diplomatic and understated way.
Why do I think that you'd fight tooth and nail against stem cell research, I wonder...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is a variation of the theme - we are the good guys, trust us.
This is closer to Haber and Bosch.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Oh wait that doesn't fit our narrative.
Some government group in the executive office that Obama banned from doing scientific research is now doing it again.
Catalytic ammonia synthesis?
Weaponization of chlorine gas.
And the rest of his great inventions during those years, and after.
Bosch is one a bit more sympathetic character, he did found and head IG Farben, but at least got up and quit when he saw what the Nazis are going to do with his inventions when he noticed that he can't stop them, at least he didn't want to be part of it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks
"national security"?
So far every "High Security" lab that worked for some time had germs escape and infect people and that includes nasties like Marburg. These labs cannot be made as secure as they would need to be for this research. Lets just hope the fools at work on this do not create a bug that kills but has a long incubation time. However, them being fools, my hopes are slim.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
LOL editor... if they were an actual editor, the summary wouldn't duplicate sentences in the summary. I'm just waiting for a dupe post of the article so we can have a dupe of the dupe.
From the summary (as posted when I posted this, in case the monkeys try to ninja-fix it):
Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine. Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I know that there's Hanlon's razor, but I think we can chalk this up to malice and not stupidity.
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
"This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original..."
"This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original..."
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
"This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original..."
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
"This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original..."
At least they don't repeat themselves. They don't repeat themselves.
Will the military be interested?
First you pass a tax law to initiate a massive and hilariously unsustainable wealth transfer to the 1%, then you approve research into potential pandemic-causing bioweapons...it looks bad when you do these things together, see where I'm coming from?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Parent is not arguing for insurance protection, but that the premium on a trillion-dollar policy would be too much for any researcher to afford, and that therefore the research does not get done. What would actually happen if we passed such a law is that no legal research of this type would get done.
Actually, this whole section is duplicated in whole, immediately after the end of the second sentence:
Such work can now proceed, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, but only if a scientific panel decides that the benefits justify the risks. Some scientists are eager to pursue these studies because they may show, for example, how a bird flu could mutate to more easily infect humans, or could yield clues to making a better vaccine.
Repetition works, David. Repetition works, David.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
It's not like anyone can afford medical care. Just give them some antibiotics and write them a prescription for oxycodone and send them home. That's how the US healthcare system works.
PS - Idiocracy by Mike Judge is a documentary on America in the 21st century.
Just like
"If Obama wants something to get done he needs to be against it."
It is just like that; only it's even more true with Trump than with Obama. At least with Obama almost no Democrats opposed him, Trump has many Republicans against anything he does as well.
The simple truth is government is too partisan these days and the other "side" too keen to block anything even if they agree with it in private, because they don't get the "points". It would be a lot nicer if we'd really see all of the elected officials truly debating ideas on the merits - not sure how we get back to that though.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No we haven't. That's a ridiculous statement.
And Fukushima is a conspiracy theory. Just like Three mile island and Chernobyl.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
I forgot to add, I know this because I both read the summary and thought about it for two minutes,
A shame you didn't spend two minutes longer, or you'd have bypassed your simplistic vision and realized being able to cure something is vastly better than being able to "deal" with it, i.e. manufacturing ten million body bags with a really good seal on them.
Instead of the New Deal, what you are giving everyone is a Raw Deal.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
When 1person suffers from a delusion,it is called insanity.When many people suffer from a delusion,it is called religion
The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat...
So only the most deadly pathogens will be allowed, phew, was worried for a minute. Wait.
Lime disease from Plum island.
HIV from crappy virus work by psycho's.
New black plague strains in Madagascar.
Or ebola magically reappearing?
Or the fake H1N1, RIvo and other non starters that the MSM faked into giant scares?
Just Sayin... Please though, ignore the forced flouride medication(brainfood)!!! and those aluminum salts/mercury in your antivirus shots.... Go back to sleep/sheep.
Whats that last line, something you heard at a t-party rally and you have been looking for any excuse to use it? Well it doesn't fit, you should put that one back in your hip pocket and save it for later slugger.
So this is what my future self came back for and kept blabbing about. Oh well, I wasn't really paying attention, and plus that's his future, not mine.
or greatly misrepresented like everything coming out of the US MSM since Trump decided to run for president.
Or shooting elephants just to cut off their tails as trophies.
Elephant.... tails? I think you're doing it wrong!
I don't know, bio weapon research and testing near the capitol would insure that the politicians have a vested interest in making sure that the research lab is well funded, safe, and being run by responsible parties. Politicians behave quite responsibly when they have skin in the game.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Don't tell me, tell this creepy SOB:
http://assets.nydailynews.com/...
In case you're not from the US, the person in that picture holding the dead elephant's severed tail is Donald Trump, Jr.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Are you somehow thinking I just claimed it was perfectly safe? That's not what I said.
Put Bioweapons into Health, Education and Welfare
Put Chemical Weapon research into "insecticide" at Agriculture
Put VA costs offline entirely
Make Dept of Energy into Dept. of Nuclear Weapons maintenance.
Put weapons guidance into NASA
See? How the War Machine is really paid for
You have mistaken my deriding the poster for make a flat-out statement of "fact" that is merely his knee-jerk opinion, with me actually supporting the opposite position. My position is "I don't know and therefore I'm not going to leap to a conclusion." I know this is quite rare here on the internets.