US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
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Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#2[deleted]
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#3Just when I think we can't possibly make any more amazingly stupid decisions on this planet, there we go again
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#4The intention seems legit, despite the concern. Quote from the article:
The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat, and the work must produce knowledge — such as a vaccine — that would benefit humans. Finally, there must be no safer way to do the research.
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#5The intention seems legit, despite the concern. Quote from the article: The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat, and the work must produce knowledge — such as a vaccine — that would benefit humans. Finally, there must be no safer way to do the research.
Also, it's regulated and overseen by a review board:
> "Now, a government panel will require that researchers show that their studies in this area are scientifically sound and that they will be done in a high-security lab."
It does sound like there are concerns. I'm glad that people are keeping their eyes on it. I found this quote interesting as well, regarding publishing the results of such research:
> “Physicists long ago learned to distinguish between what can be publicly available and what’s classified,” he added, referring to nuclear weapons research. “We want to keep some of this stuff on a need-to-know basis.”
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#6The intention seems legit, despite the concern. Quote from the article: The pathogen to be modified must pose a serious health threat, and the work must produce knowledge — such as a vaccine — that would benefit humans. Finally, there must be no safer way to do the research.
[deleted]
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#7Now, I don't want to seem anti-science or anything, but this seems like a massive disaster just waiting to happen, in light of the incidents that led to this ban and also, even more to the point, the 2001 anthrax attacks.[1] Couldn't they at least restrict this research to labs far away from major population centers?
The analogue with software development, I'd say, is when people periodically point out that nuclear power plant or ICBM control systems still run on 8-inch floppy disks!!1! and therefore allegedly need to be completely rewritten. That rationale likewise fails to meet my tempting fate threshold.
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#8Setting the stage for every biohazard movie ever made.
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#9Just when I think we can't possibly make any more amazingly stupid decisions on this planet, there we go again
In this administration stupid is the norm. Haven't you noticed?
Re: US Federal Ban on Making Lethal Viruses Is Lifted
#10Now, I don't want to seem anti-science or anything, but this seems like a massive disaster just waiting to happen, in light of the incidents that led to this ban and also, even more to the point, the 2001 anthrax attacks.[1] Couldn't they at least restrict this research to labs far away from major population centers? The analogue with software development, I'd say, is when people periodically point out that nuclear p…
It's possible that it's very difficult to engineer a virus that can do better than anything nature has come up with. Evolution has had billions of years to try all the attack vectors. A worst case 12 Monkeys-style disaster seems unlikely.
But I'm ignorant of this topic. Without handwaving or pointing at the worst case, how much should we worry? Is there any evidence that a genetically enhanced virus can be devastating? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_virus doesn't have much.