Like a keen hobby gardener creating new varieties of roses, scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka has been entertaining himself creating exotic variants of the flu virus. Some of his more important achievements are (1) a replica of the 1918 Spanish flu virus which then wiped out 50-100 million people (2) a highly transmissible version of the deadly avian flu virus and (3) some exotic hybrid flu optimised to evade the human immune system.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...h-9577088.html
Interestingly, for the creation of such a highly dangerous and potentially pandemic virus, it appears that a remarkably small budget is required. Just $12M for the laboratory. By comparison, the Manhattan Project cost in today's terms $26 Billion for a weapon of an arguably much smaller destructive capacity.
Probably, this scientist is not the only one at it and there will be parallel activities elsewhere, better shielded from the public eye with maybe other potential nasties also like ebola, smallpox, bubonic plague etc. etc.
Maybe some epidemics or even pandemics were/are direct result of such experiments. Certainly, at least smallpox has leaked out of a laboratory. Some pathogens with potentially a long period between infection and symptom could leak out through unwittingly infected laboratory workers, and the source may never be known.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...h-9577088.html
Interestingly, for the creation of such a highly dangerous and potentially pandemic virus, it appears that a remarkably small budget is required. Just $12M for the laboratory. By comparison, the Manhattan Project cost in today's terms $26 Billion for a weapon of an arguably much smaller destructive capacity.
Probably, this scientist is not the only one at it and there will be parallel activities elsewhere, better shielded from the public eye with maybe other potential nasties also like ebola, smallpox, bubonic plague etc. etc.
Maybe some epidemics or even pandemics were/are direct result of such experiments. Certainly, at least smallpox has leaked out of a laboratory. Some pathogens with potentially a long period between infection and symptom could leak out through unwittingly infected laboratory workers, and the source may never be known.