"I wouldn't call this censorship."

[Sonny Limatina]

Would you?

Seeing Terror Risk, U.S. Asks Journals to Cut Flu Study Facts
By DENISE GRADY and WILLIAM J. BROAD
New York Times

For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics.

In the experiments, conducted in the United States and the Netherlands, scientists created a highly transmissible form of a deadly flu virus that does not normally spread from person to person. It was an ominous step, because easy transmission can lead the virus to spread all over the world. The work was done in ferrets, which are considered a good model for predicting what flu viruses will do in people...Scientists have watched the virus, worrying that if it developed the ability to spread easily from person to person, it could create one of the deadliest pandemics ever.

A government advisory panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, has asked two journals, Science and Nature, to keep certain details out of reports that they intend to publish on the research. The panel said conclusions should be published, but not “experimental details and mutation data that would enable replication of the experiments.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/h...sks-journals-to-censor-articles-on-virus.html

 

[Colonel Hogan]

I don't think it is censorship if you ask someone to cease publication and the decision is truly left with the editor or publisher to accept or decline.

Having said that, I think the decision to actually create this killer virus is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. What is the point? How are they going to conduct any meaningful experiments on something that has to be so carefully contained? How are they going to dispose of it when they're done?

Admittedly, this is not my area of expertise, but it makes me nervous as hell. Forget terrorists. I'm waiting for some idiot to drop a petri dish on the floor or for the glove box to spring a leak.

 

[Peregrinator]

I don't think it is censorship if you ask someone to cease publication and the decision is truly left with the editor or publisher to accept or decline.

Having said that, I think the decision to actually create this killer virus is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. What is the point? How are they going to conduct any meaningful experiments on something that has to be so carefully contained? How are they going to dispose of it when they're done?

Admittedly, this is not my area of expertise, but it makes me nervous as hell. Forget terrorists. I'm waiting for some idiot to drop a petri dish on the floor or for the glove box to spring a leak.

I agree with your first sentence as far as it goes, but I think we can agree that such requests can often be more than just a request.

As far as creating a deadly strain of flu, it could be weapons research, an attempt to prepare for when Zee Chermans or someone tries to use it against us.

 

[Colonel Hogan]

As far as creating a deadly strain of flu, it could be weapons research, an attempt to prepare for when Zee Chermans or someone tries to use it against us.

Well, that's the problem with most WMD these days, isn't it? How well one aims is the least of the considerations when a bio bullet starts ricocheting around the battlefield.

 

[Karen Kraft]

They have been making and breaking this sort of thing for decades, both in government property labs and in contractor/university labs. The censorship idea is cute but, in reality, nothing digital is ever that secure. All you need is a WikiLeaks asshole to snoop into the zone and before long some Al Jazeera reporter will deliver it to the terrorists. The problem with these purportedly deadly pandemic nightmare viruses is that they mutate to less lethal forms remarkably quickly... even before the synthetic chemotherapeutic antibiotic and antiviral chemicals are widely distributed.

Thus, trying to prevent such attacks through making ordinary research "classified," either by fiat or by request, albeit a noble thought, is a waste of time. One cannot really "prevent" most well planned terrorist events. It's much better to levy jaw-dropping horrific reprisals on civilian populations. While some mistakenly try to suggest that breeds hatred, in truth the hatred is already in full bloom and the slaughter breeds respect and admiration amongst the target communities. Funny how that works. Seems so nasty, but it is what it is.

For example: were Tel Aviv to be hit with a dirty or fully functional nuclear-component bomb of some sort, sent from Iran, the response would not be for Israel to send over some bombs to try to take out the nuclear production sites. The answer would be to nuke Tehran, several times over. It sends the right message to Iran and all others similarly situated.

Life is not an exercise in Occupy Golden Gate Park.

 

[Peregrinator]

Well, that's the problem with most WMD these days, isn't it? How well one aims is the least of the considerations when a bio bullet starts ricocheting around the battlefield.

For sure, yeah. They're dangerous as hell, if they work like they're supposed to.

It would take a special kind of madness to use such a thing, since everyone knows it's likely to kill everybody including your allies.

 

[phrodeau]

It's a lab mutation, but it could very well come about naturally. With the virus in hand we can develop antiviral drugs to fight it.

 

[LadyFairfax]

For sure, yeah. They're dangerous as hell, if they work like they're supposed to.

It would take a special kind of madness to use such a thing, since everyone knows it's likely to kill everybody including your allies.

Not if you've developed them in lab and inoculated your side. Of course if you don't study them in lab and develop cures, you are dead.

This was done in a movie, "Outbreak".

 

[busybody..]

I know

Lets let EVERYONE know about it

So we can die

Oh, BTW, lets NOT ask to see Obama's documents, cause THAT is a SECRET

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

They have been making and breaking this sort of thing for decades, both in government property labs and in contractor/university labs. The censorship idea is cute but, in reality, nothing digital is ever that secure. All you need is a WikiLeaks asshole to snoop into the zone and before long some Al Jazeera reporter will deliver it to the terrorists. The problem with these purportedly deadly pandemic nightmare viruses is that they mutate to less lethal forms remarkably quickly... even before the synthetic chemotherapeutic antibiotic and antiviral chemicals are widely distributed.

Thus, trying to prevent such attacks through making ordinary research "classified," either by fiat or by request, albeit a noble thought, is a waste of time. One cannot really "prevent" most well planned terrorist events. It's much better to levy jaw-dropping horrific reprisals on civilian populations. While some mistakenly try to suggest that breeds hatred, in truth the hatred is already in full bloom and the slaughter breeds respect and admiration amongst the target communities. Funny how that works. Seems so nasty, but it is what it is.

For example: were Tel Aviv to be hit with a dirty or fully functional nuclear-component bomb of some sort, sent from Iran, the response would not be for Israel to send over some bombs to try to take out the nuclear production sites. The answer would be to nuke Tehran, several times over. It sends the right message to Iran and all others similarly situated.

Life is not an exercise in Occupy Golden Gate Park.

All it takes is one team member with an axe to grind; a wrong to be assuaged...



And really, the bad guys don't need the details, I'm sure the procedure is the same for all sorts of genetic engineering. You might as well hide the details to making insect/disease-resistant tomatoes...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I know

Lets let EVERYONE know about it

So we can die

Oh, BTW, lets NOT ask to see Obama's documents, cause THAT is a SECRET

Condi's WARDROBE!

 

[busybody..]

who PAID for it and why?

why dont we know?

CENSORSHIP!


OH.....Lets tell EVERYONE the secret to mass killings

Oh, a FAG may be OH! FENDED! and he will let everyone know

and we will blame ourselves, not the FAG!

 

[Sonny Limatina]

I agree with your first sentence as far as it goes, but I think we can agree that such requests can often be more than just a request.

Exactly. "Your government is asking you not to assist in acts of terrorism against it" is not exactly in the 'would you mind turning your music down just a little' family.

There's a concerning bit of slippery-slope-ness here, if you ask me (which I did).

 

[JohnnySavage]

You have the damn swiss making black holes, and the american's making virusessesss. Science will be the death of us all!

Luddites unite!

 

[Sonny Limatina]

You have the damn swiss making black holes, and the american's making virusessesss. Science will be the death of us all!

Luddites unite!

To be fair, based both on their cheese and on Alizee Gaillard, the Swiss make some damned good holes.