Walking to the Firing Line

A coal miner with the last canary to be used down a coal mine in 1987

 

Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at the American Enterprise Institute who has written widely on Russia’s health crisis, told Orrin Judd in 2004. “They never get better. The country just keeps going down—in numbers, in health, and in its possibilities for the future. It seems to get worse every year, and I don’t see even the slightest suggestion that that is going to change. Russia, like Africa, I am very sorry to say, is taking a detour from the rest of humanity as far as progress is measured by improving general health.’’

You have to wonder why the Eramus group are creating new variants on pathogens and not using their expertise to find solutions for existing threats.....or perhaps H5N1 is a solution for a population whose innate immune responses have become impaired.

Preparing for the pandemic

In November 2011, a Dutch group  Erasmus MC in Rotterdam (led by Dr Ron Fouchier and read how he feels about being in the eye of the storm) succeeded in making a highly pathogenic variant of avian flu (H5N1) which, if released, could cause a global pandemic. Ever since, a storm has raged as scientists and governments worldwide attempt to deal with the findings and how they should be safely disseminated—if at all.

The team's work has sparked fears that the virus could be weaponized by being reassembled from the published data, amidst other concerns. The facility in which work on the virus was done is at biosafety level 3+ (BSL-3+). Critics argue this doesn't reflect the true threat accidental release poses, arguing that maximum-security BSL-4, which demands all lab workers wear positive pressure suits and be subjected to multiple decontamination steps, be the required standard for working with such a dangerous pathogen. (click to read the insanity)

In the eye of the storm. Flu researcher Ron Fouchier.

This surname Fouchier was derived from the Old German Fulchar a name meaning

the people-army.

First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
You live you life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
You say you want to spend the winter in Firenza
You're so afraid to catch a dose of influenza

~ Lyrics Canary in a Coalmine, The Police