singular_me
18th November 2015, 03:36 PM
will this strain target a particular DNA or just all of us ? (when/if released)
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Scientists Just Created A Dangerous New Form Of SARS
18th November 2015
‘It’s been well over a decade since the SARS virus captured the attention of the world, and very nearly devastated the global population. Between 2002 and 2003, the virus managed to infect over 8000 people across 37 countries, nearly 10% of who were killed before the outbreak was fully contained. Now scientists have created a highly potent hybrid of the virus which has since been dubbed “SARS 2.0.”
The new strain is very similar to SARS, but is modified to be more contagious for humans. Essentially, it is a mix between a type of SARS that infects mice, and a new form of SARS that was recently found in Chinese horseshoe bats, called “SHC014.” The scientists who created the hybrid wanted to study this emerging virus, since they know it carries the potential to devastate human populations. According to Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina, “The strain grew equally well to SARS in human cells,” and “It resisted all vaccines and immunotherapy, too.”’
http://www.activistpost.com/2015/11/scientists-just-created-a-dangerous-new-form-of-sars.html
Ethical Questions Arise After Scientists Brew Super Powerful 'SARS 2.0' Virus
November 15, 2015 // 09:00 AM EST
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More than a decade after its outbreak, the name “SARS” still incites memories of worldwide panic over a disease that, we thought at the time, couldn’t be stopped. Now, 13 years later, scientists have created a hybrid version of a virus that could be the world’s next pandemic, a “SARS 2.0.”
The findings have brought up ethical questions about whether scientists should pursue “gain-of-function” research, or work that could increase the virulence of certain pathogens, despite the dangers of creating a virus that could potentially wreak havoc if released into the wild.
Furthermore, the study comes in the wake of a US government announcement of a moratorium on federal funding for research that focused on the viruses that cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), as well as those that cause influenza and MERS. This study began before that ban was created, so it was grandfathered in and allowed to run to completion.
In order to study the virus in a lab, scientists created a “chimaeric virus,” or a hybrid made of protein and the structure of a SARS virus. Critics say that the benefit isn’t worth it to isolate a virus that, theoretically, could escape the lab and infect people.
“If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told Nature.
The virus in question, a strain of bat coronavirus, is similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the disease that triggered widespread panic during an outbreak in Asia in 2002 and 2003 that spread to 29 countries, infected about 8,000, and killed over 700 people. After the outbreak, scientists concluded that the virus likely jumped from a species of bat to humans through a process called zoonotic transfer. .......
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ethical-questions-arise-after-scientists-brew-super-powerful-sars-20-virus
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Scientists Just Created A Dangerous New Form Of SARS
18th November 2015
‘It’s been well over a decade since the SARS virus captured the attention of the world, and very nearly devastated the global population. Between 2002 and 2003, the virus managed to infect over 8000 people across 37 countries, nearly 10% of who were killed before the outbreak was fully contained. Now scientists have created a highly potent hybrid of the virus which has since been dubbed “SARS 2.0.”
The new strain is very similar to SARS, but is modified to be more contagious for humans. Essentially, it is a mix between a type of SARS that infects mice, and a new form of SARS that was recently found in Chinese horseshoe bats, called “SHC014.” The scientists who created the hybrid wanted to study this emerging virus, since they know it carries the potential to devastate human populations. According to Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina, “The strain grew equally well to SARS in human cells,” and “It resisted all vaccines and immunotherapy, too.”’
http://www.activistpost.com/2015/11/scientists-just-created-a-dangerous-new-form-of-sars.html
Ethical Questions Arise After Scientists Brew Super Powerful 'SARS 2.0' Virus
November 15, 2015 // 09:00 AM EST
Copy This URL
More than a decade after its outbreak, the name “SARS” still incites memories of worldwide panic over a disease that, we thought at the time, couldn’t be stopped. Now, 13 years later, scientists have created a hybrid version of a virus that could be the world’s next pandemic, a “SARS 2.0.”
The findings have brought up ethical questions about whether scientists should pursue “gain-of-function” research, or work that could increase the virulence of certain pathogens, despite the dangers of creating a virus that could potentially wreak havoc if released into the wild.
Furthermore, the study comes in the wake of a US government announcement of a moratorium on federal funding for research that focused on the viruses that cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), as well as those that cause influenza and MERS. This study began before that ban was created, so it was grandfathered in and allowed to run to completion.
In order to study the virus in a lab, scientists created a “chimaeric virus,” or a hybrid made of protein and the structure of a SARS virus. Critics say that the benefit isn’t worth it to isolate a virus that, theoretically, could escape the lab and infect people.
“If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told Nature.
The virus in question, a strain of bat coronavirus, is similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the disease that triggered widespread panic during an outbreak in Asia in 2002 and 2003 that spread to 29 countries, infected about 8,000, and killed over 700 people. After the outbreak, scientists concluded that the virus likely jumped from a species of bat to humans through a process called zoonotic transfer. .......
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ethical-questions-arise-after-scientists-brew-super-powerful-sars-20-virus