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I’m surprised these haven’t been weaponized by terrorists.
Wouldn't this be more for the lunatic who either hopes to take humanity down in the long run, or just does not give an f?
More of a 12 Monkeys scenario?
Regardless, happy Monday, indeed...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Globalization is a fairly new thing (on the 3.5B year timescale at least), allowing for the spread of any disease quickly. Whereas isolation and evolution has saved us in the past, it might not have the necessary time in the future (imagine if Covid had been even more deadly, for example).
If COVID were more deadly like Ebola it tends to not have long gestation periods where it can be spread without symptoms.
- Prions are resistant to sterilization (since there is nothing to "kill"), but simple soap and water are still highly effective
- Prions don't "last forever". They can live in buried carcasses for a few years, but some studies have shown that even our existing sewage treatment processes already break down a lot of prions.
- While vegans might have some risk, meat multiplies the risk because of how it can concentrate prions. I have to imagine that vegans have an incredibly low risk profile for prions.
- Most importantly, viruses and bacteria innately "want" to spread. Prions do not have any biological mechanism for their own propagation - they are just an unfortunate mistake of nature. And this seems to be key why there has never been a massive prion outbreak.
If you were an anarchist rooting for the collapse of society, as this writer seems to pitching for, sure it seems like it might be a more likely vector than many.
I for one would appreciate anyone who has expert biological knowledge commenting on this. I don't entirely dismiss this article since I have a friend who worked with prions in a bio lab at the Univ. of Chicago and I remember he was absolutely terrified of them. (And IIRC he reported having some doubts about laboratory safety protocols...) But I don't think he was afraid of this kind of apocalyptic endgame either; he…
Counterpoint: The Fore people of NZ had kuru from ritual cannibalism. Then they stopped. Eventually, the disease stopped too. Prions are nasty, but we've had 3.5 billion years of protein folding and none of it has ended the world yet.
The majority of research into prions happens post mortem, and is usually trying to pin down the cause of death. Statistically, there must be prions that are not lethal.
I'm reminded of the issues with people that work at pig processing plants, who had the job of blowing the brains out of the skull cavity with compressed air. Many were not issued proper PPE and ended up with a wide variety of symptoms.
https://www.twincities.com/2008/02/06/minn-to-question-25-mo...
Even if 1 prion can kill you, even if prions will survive in the soil indefinitely, I think we are going to erode all the topsoil faster than the prions can accumulate in concentrations sufficient to cause issues.
Prions are pretty scary, but I think there are a lot of things this article gets wrong. - Prions are resistant to sterilization (since there is nothing to "kill"), but simple soap and water are still highly effective - Prions don't "last forever". They can live in buried carcasses for a few years, but some studies have shown that even our existing sewage treatment processes already break down a lot of prions. - While…
I’m surprised these haven’t been weaponized by terrorists.
Terrorism is first and foremost a propaganda strategy to destabilise the political system in the target country and recruit new members to the organisations cause
Since prions take decades to progress, a terrorist attack using such a weapon, would probably not create the shock and outrage, that makes headlines