Scientist Creates Super Contagious Version of Deadly H5N1 Bird Flu, Urged Not to Publish Research

what a cunt.

What a fool! Does he lack morality? Creating such a Satan Bug, should be a crime against humanity. He better not publish his findings and destroy what he has created. Heaven help us all, if this work falls into the wrong hands!

It is as if scientists watch sic-fi movies and say to themselves, “Golly, thats a great idea! inelegant warrior robots, super flu etc.” Perhaps there should be a moratorium on scientists watching movies. 

such an idiot asshole.. yeah publish your findings so that terrorists can create the same virus and send it back to your country and kill you all.. you asshole.. some one should kill that bastard so that many other innocent people may survive

research@erasmusmc.nl here is their email address.. pls email them to stop this insane !

I think we shouldn’t speak too soon and wait for announcements of scientists who are kowledgeable in that subject. Because, yes it is possible that
this virus can be dangerous but it is also possible that some companies
are trying to prevent this research – there is a big market in flu
vaccines.

7 billion….no problems. He’ll take care of that, won’t he? 

  que miedo

This is why science should have a moral code.

This virus sounds way too easy to mutate, if Fouchier could to it with a few ferrets.  ”
His research team infected the ferrets and then transferred the infection from ferret to ferret,…” In other words, he didn’t create anything.  The virus mutates naturally, and he just kept transferring it until, by chance, “the virus became airborne.”  Transferring germs–bacteria or viruses– from animal to animal is a common way of selecting mutations.  What this means is that H5N1 may well do this naturally.  Fouchier’s work may help in developing a vaccine before there is a catastrophe.

I hope Ron and anyone at the lab who is actually debating letting him publish should be KILLED. assassinated…w/e you call it. For the sake of humanity.

May all those assholes suffer in hell….if it was up to me I’d test the virus and antidote on THEM.

Hope you and your families die first.

What is most ridiculous is in my opinion is the idea that everyone thinks that this scientist most be some immoral asshole. I am certain that his intention is to better mankind, not screw them over. Maybe his research has a lot of implications for finding a cure! Let the scientists handle this. I heard those guys are pretty smart people, I trust them.

I have very important business, does anyone know where I can access his data prior to publication?

Well, if he could do it, no doubt that ANY terrorist organization can. It is best to try to understand the aspects which make that virus virulent than just turn your head away and denounce xenophobism. 
We scientists are working not for an evil agenda, but to try to comprehend aspects of life. That stands for inmune response agains pathogens and virulence factors from pathogens. While it is a controversial research it does put the matter at hand. The same was said when the pox virus was published in the 90s, and when it was “brought back to life” by DNA synthesis on the last decade. Viruses are never going to dissappear, they will always endure, maybe dormant (like frozen in the permafrost) or infecting other lifeforms.
This gives the incentive to prepare for such a situation like a pandemic. I’d be cautious to release the sequence, but nevertheless if he could, someone else will… Even nature by itself. It is just a matter of time… Evolution drives mutations to which ever makes the virus fittest.

Stop having such emotional reactions to this! Its is unintelligent and counterproductive.

Yes, he might have created a super-contagious virus. So what. Atom bombs exist too, and have not killed anyone since 1945. Besides, there is no proof that the virus actually is as contagious as the scientists assume. I have not seen any indication of how the virus’s capability to infect has been assayed.

I believe this is a prime example of emotions getting entangled with the interpretation of scientific news. Calm down.

It might not be as bad as we intuitively believe it to be… A few scenarios:

1. The guy doesn’t publish the result, nobody researches about the mutation and possible anti-virus for it. We wait for nature to achieve the five mutations on it’s own then we search for a cure while people die by the millions (like a Black Plague);

2. The guy doesn’t publish the result, nobody researches about the mutation and possible anti-virus for it. We wait until a mad man comes up with similar results and sells the mutation to the highest bidder so that it is unleashed upon people which will die by the millions (like a Black Plague) while we search for a cure;

3. The guy publishes the result, a terrorist* reads about it in a science journal and reproduces the mutation then infects people unknowingly at an international airport;

4. The guy publishes the result, other researchers* worldwide analyse the mutation to better understand it in order to create an anti-viral cure before it hits us;

* Terrorist: A wannabe terrorist, probably single and without a family, that has nothing better to do than killing people without taking into account the consequences of releasing a deadly virus into the wild (in other words, a dumbass);

* Researchers: As in “above-average-researchers-not-really-at-the-grasp-of-wannabe-terrorists”*; 

* “Above-average-researchers-not-really-at-the-grasp-of-wannabe-terrorists”: Not to be mistaken for ”above-average-terrorist-not-really-at-the-grasp-of-anyone-AKA-New-World-Order-population-control-BlackOps-terrorists”;

Wait a week and it will probably be published on Wikipedia.

So much blind rage in the comments here.

Whilst I’m not that fond of a contagious bird-flu strain, I understand the reasons behind doing what Fouchier has done. It’s been done before, with far less dangerous diseases, mainly so that scientists can better protect humanity from the risks of the problem. In fact, most vaccines are made with weakened or dead forms of a disease (simply put).

I don’t particularly care if he release it one way or another, simply because if he doesn’t, somebody else will. The more you try to hide something the quicker people will find out about it, so why delay the inevitable?

Like the South American scientist who tried to develop a less agressive African Killer Bee? You know what happened. One of his ignorant flunkies released them into the enviroment. Now there are a plauge of them reaching North America. Thanks to good intentions.

Yet artificial selection works at a more excellerated pace than evolution. And any man made mutaions, which current organisms have no natural defenses, should not be continued. It is not a boon to science, but a bane to humanity and other life forms.
Would you side with the same type of thinking that the Japanese scientist used in Nanjing, China during WW2? How will your mind  deal with the abuse of science.

Satan bug? Damn you’re old :P

(It distresses me that I know what you’re on about :P)

This is how zombie apocalypses start

Leave it to some French asshole to develop a dangerous pathogen and then insist that he get recognition for it. Merde!

Looks like it is time to start stocking up and food, guns, and a backup plan when society falls. Contagion here we come! 

Once people know it can be done, many people can then do it. Better move onto the next step which will be using the knowledge to devise better methods of blocking the virus.

While I agree that flu vaccine is a huge economic boon to pharma, they do no inoculate for avian bird flus, H1N1, or this super H5N1 avian flu. The real discussion needed here is why was it important to make the virus airborne in the first place? How does that help scientists understand how to prevent a pandemic, or treat in the eventuality of such. More importantly, where’s ethical / moral boundary, and did his funders understand that he was improving virulence by focusing on the means to increase contagion via a method so dangerous as airborne? Do I want his findings published? Not likely, do I see a problem with making a known deadly flu virus an airborne contagion? Hell yes. There is so much more to this story, and this one has nothing to do with seasonal influenza vaccination.

I guess I’m just not sure how this isn’t bio-terrorism. Had I managed to develop an airborne strain of H5N1, even in a laboratory at an accredited scientific research institution, I’m nearly positive that I would be labeled a bio-terrorist and swift legal action would be taken against me. This is the type of thing that intelligence agencies should be monitoring and regulating.

i wish i got payed to do stupid shit

after reading this… i think we’re all screwed…. flues mutate all the time, over time, so we’re pretty much just waiting for this thing to evolve and kill 59% of the population off, nature doesn’t need terrorists to do its dirty work for it, its going to mutate on its own, all the scientist did was perform a controlled test to speed up an already naturally occurring process, so…. carpe diem!

People are talking as if terrorists haven’t already considered/thought of making a killer virus. The US is probably making one also right now, it’s always been a possibility and very simple due to the fast reproduction rates of Virus’. Now, calling this man out, what good does that do? It was a simple experiment, and the findings could be good. If another Bird Flu floats around, we’d already have half an antidote because of him! We can start the research already. Don’t be so narrow minded. 

I guess we shouldn’t piss him off and do exactly as he says.

Nicer people have better memory. The aids pandemic was caused because some doctor made antidote with monkey plasma that contained some animal cells and injected it on large scale in Africa. Why should we not learn a lesson from how easy viruses spread. If we were not so stupid many of us had still lived. We ourselves are doomed anyway because antibiotics are used at large scale at farms, just in order to make animals grow faster (and that is not even more tasty or cheaper for consumers). How many people do you think this potentially kills, being unable to be cured with medicine and having resistant bacterias. This happens while everyone votes for hate politicians who have a lot of comment, like you do, but won’t deliver a thing, shouting does not help adem_2011. A child can know that every virus can be changed and everybody knows that these organisms have the ability to adapt build into them. Evil persons could have know this already. In fact, doctors alter viruses all the time in order to get to know more about it.

Wow, I love the people commenting about how immoral this research is (oh, especially the people who believe the scientist should be killed…you believe someone should be murdered, even though they’ve committed NO crime?  Why, that’s mighty moral of YOU).

I think anyone with an ounce – no, a DRAM – of sense, would see the reason why this research had to be done.  Viruses, especially ssRNA viruses (which the flu is….but I assume everyone who’s mouthing off is educated on the subject knows this, no?), are prone to mutation.  This is why you can’t get the exact same flu vaccine every year.

Any scientists studying disease progression have obligations to predict further mutations, and to anticipate them.  Scientists also have a responsibility to share information.  Chances are, with the few mutations it takes to make this contagious, it wouldn’t be that long before someone with ulterior motives made those mutations. Honestly, I would be more appalled at a scientist who made these discoveries and DIDN’T share them.  Now they’ve been shared, other scientists who are not just into the theoretical but also the practical, can start creating vaccines and treatments.

Seriously, how is this much different than Griffith’s research in 1928 on the transformation principle of S. pneumoniae?  These researchers have given us information and there is nothing wrong with that (I am betting at least half of you  calling for Fouchier’s head loooooove Assange).  It is what people do with the information that makes a difference.  Who is really to blame for the bombing of Nagasaki-  Curie, Oppenheimer, or Truman?

So in conclusion, all you people who are sooooo upset?  I suggest you sign up for some science and ethics classes and until you’ve completed them, STFU.

If you aren’t sure how this isn’t bioterrorism, you REEEEEALLY need to research what bioterrorism is.  This man has committed no terrorist actions.  

Seriously, it seems you are holding a man who has created the blueprints to the next weapon of mass destruction, and freely shared them with the government, on the same level of someone who secretly created a WMD and used it.  Two ENTIRELY different things.  And again, if you can’t see the difference, try getting off the internet for a bit and read a frickin book.

I was not aware chimneys were capable of mutating.

What?  You mean the general public is showing an inability to accurately synthesize and logically interpret scientific data on more than a visceral level?  And scientific discovery is being reported in such a way to reinforce that visceral reaction?  Say it ain’t so!

;-)

“ It is not a boon to science, but a bane to humanity”
What are you basing this on?  Are you including human’s ability to mass-produce cures and vaccines for diseases that used to wipe out 100,000′s of people/year in the past but now kill <100 / year in areas where the treatments are available?  Are you including the people who used to suffer from GENETIC diseases who are now able to receive treatments?  To name just TWO examples.

I am unsure whether you are just ignorant of the actual facts or whether you hate these people and think they should be dead – that people should starve to death rather than have GM food, that people should die of Diphtheria rather than receiving a vaccine, that people should suffer from autoimmune diseases with their body attacking itself until it dies rather than receive these treatments that you, personally, find so unappealing.

Who are YOU to decide these people's fates for them?

and this is why you should study science before mouthing off.  Scientists do have a moral code, and anyone with an ounce of sense would tell you there’s nothing immoral with what this scientist did.

And a moratorium on non-scientists mouthing off about science.  Or idiots using the internet.

….we can all keep dreaming.

Geekosystem – considering the delicacy of this article, perhaps you should mention in the article that the image is from a standard Hazmat exercise that was in no way connected to the research, and has nothing to do with the article at hand, at time of publishing?  I mean, it’s your article and all, but unless the photo is an actual response to an H5N1 outbreak, it just feels a bit like fear-mongering, you know?

As being a fellow scientist I do see his point but let us be frank – some scientists are idiots and they have their head so far up their ass! I do see why he engineered this virus. He did it in order to understand it more so… he wanted to know more about it; viruses can teach us a lot and engineering is sometimes the best option to understand something, but this isn’t computer science this isn’t informatics, this is nature!! You can’t just engineer something and fek with nature, just so you can understand it in order to prevent something worse. Nature will pawn your sorry ass. It is absurd. Mutation isn’t something that is a game or goes by the rules but is a life of its own that is more powerful than you can possibly imagine. The problem is you can’t predict its behavior, and it can go far beyond your stupid control. You just can’t play God because it will back fire and you can’t control it, even though you think you can. I do understand his position but he gives the rest of us scientists a bad name. One thing I respect is nature. On the micro level nature pawns us a trillion to one. Don’t delude yourself to thinking you can control it. 

@ K scientists will eventually learn why curiosity killed the cat. Are
you actually justifying millions of death in the name of information. If
humans have to kill millions of people to make breakthroughs who are
the real viruses in this picture? Are we nothing but murders that need
to stoop to mass killings just to make breakthroughs. To be honest that
makes me want to vomit. 

I meant “murderers”

I have nothing against the sharing of this information. I think it
should be shared to be honest. However my problem with this is messing
with nature the way humans do. It is going to backfire one day and it
will cause humanities extinction.

I’s only a question of time before one of these morons kill us all,but maybe that’s the plan ?

Yeah if ur clever enough to make that shit how can you be stupid enough to wana make it public.  Im with adem. Please kill the bastard before they start WW3 with this shit!!

sur thats unacceptable talk on the internet we dont kill people where we come from

“It began in Africa”

I don’t condone the death or killing of anyone, but in this case, I would definitely make an exception. If I were the President of the US, I would send 4 black ops agents to him, and kill his ass. I would have them take over all his research and kill or capture anyone else he has had contact with about this research. Someone like this is not a good person by any means. He is evil to the core. NO ONE should ever feel pride in creating something like this and then have the balls to say they want to publish the instruction manual. KILL THIS MAN

The virus by chance can mutate into the similar virus that he has created. Creating a vaccine ahead of time might help prevent future catastrophes.

Wow what an idiot o.O

Kind of fits in with the Bilderberg idea of population reduction.  Check out conspiracy theory by Ventura. 

What would he do if loose his job and have no money and realize he can make millions by selling his receipt of death.

Yeah. really.. SATAN BUG? C’mon. You realize to create a vaccine for such viruses we have to grow and sometimes even mutate them first? :P
SO which would you rather have?
Some guy mutates the virus and in the future we have a life saving vaccine.
-OR-
Nobody does, and in a few years it breaks out and kills millions, and could possibly infect you or your family.

Excuse me, I gonna find some ferrets and birds. *Rushes off, laughing like crazy*

I agree that artificial selection is faster than evolution and that it can be put to misuse. But you are ignoring the whole point. 

I am just saying that it is best to recognize the danger and foresee the consequences of an outbreak of such a disease as the one in the article. If research may shed some light on (in this scenario of just 5 mutations – just 5!) on the dangers that are at hand, then we have the upper start. 

Just by assuming that it is a feasible situation, we might prepare to the consequences. I have to add that some aspects of virulence are poorly understood in immunology, and also maybe this research may present some evidence to understand other diseases.