On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 14:07:19 +0000, Mike Williams
<nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Wasn't it who wrote:
>>On Feb 5, 3:51 pm, Shawn Wilson <ikonoql...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> On Feb 4, 2:30 pm, bealoid <sig...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> > assume a well funded group, with staff and equipment. (For example,
look
>>> > at someone like Aum Shin Ryko cult managing to aerosolise Anthrax
into air
>>> > for 24 hours.)
>>> > How hard is it for them to get a bunch of virus / bacteria / fungal
spores
>>> > and 'gene hack' them into something really vicious - spreads like
measles,
>>> > infects about 80% of people it contacts, kills 60% of infected
within 4
>>> > weeks, leaves the rest immune from future attacks, but with severly
>>> > compromised breathing (eg COPD) and with other weaknesses.
>>> Not too hard at all, with the right resources. You don't even need
>>> gene hacking, just get your hands on samples of the 'Spanish Flu'. Or
>>> Smallpox. Or Plague (need fleas to spread that).
>>Yes, what exactly are the "right resources" to get into the best
>>guarded biolab in Russia and get away with it? Keeping in mind Tsar
>>Vlad's area of expertise and likely priorities?
>It might be possible to obtain Spanish Flu if you can find other Arctic
>graves containing victims. Presumably the Longyearbyen Cemetery has been
>made safe now, but since there were an estimated 50 million deaths,
>there may well be other such graves, and they can't all have been found
>and made safe.
That was basically Aum Shinrikyo's method of getting hold of a virulent
Anthrax strain, and it didn't work for them. There's *lots* of bugs in
the wild, even if you look specifically in plague-stricken graveyards,
and the ones which grow best in even a tailored culture medium are not
the ones you're looking for.
There's a whole lot of trial and error involved in that approach, with
each trial a substantial expense and a non-trivial risk of discovery.
Oh, and some of the errors will kill you.
--
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