In the August "Nature Medicine" is an article by Gary J Nabel, it demonstrates
that the extraordinary lethality of the Ebola virus is caused by a certain
glycoprotein produced by the virus. The really interesting thing is the way
he did it, he removed the Ebola gene for this glycoprotein and used genetic
engineering to insert it into the virus that causes the common cold. Intact
human blood vessels were then exposed to this modified cold virus. Within
48 hours this former virus milquetoast caused the human tissue to turn into
stinky gunkey sludge just like mighty Ebola itself.
I haven't heard any protests from the anti genetics people, I guess they're too
busy protecting the world from killer tomatoes, but I got to tell you this scares
the hell out of me. I'm sure they took elaborate precautions to prevent this thing from
getting out, but holly shit! Imagine a virus that's airborn and as contagious as the
common cold, that has no vaccine or any other treatment, and kills 90% of those
infected in less than 48 hours in a manner gruesome enough for any horror movie.
I sure hope there is something about this experiment I don't understand.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:35:41 MDT