RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Armageddon virus: call to keep killer recipe secret Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:59 pm | |
| Two top scientific journals say they are deciding whether to publish details of a man-made mutant flu virus that could kill billions, after a US government's science advisory committee advised them to withhold key details.
The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) urged the US journal Science and the British journal Nature to withhold key details so people seeking to harm the public would not be able to manufacture the virus that could cause mass deaths.
The virus in question is an H5N1 bird flu strain that was genetically altered in a Dutch lab so it can pass easily between ferrets.
That means it is likely contagious among humans for the first time, and could trigger a lethal pandemic if it emerged in nature or were set loose by terrorists, experts have said.
One of the scientists behind the H5N1 research told Science his team would remove some details of their work from that manuscripts.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/armageddon-virus-call-to-keep-killer-recipe-secret-20111221-1p4mz.html#ixzz1h8dRMHlk
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