horton at biosci.cbs.umn.edu
Fri Feb 2 13:42:26 EST 1996
TLFree1500 (tlfree1500 at aol.com) wrote:
: What do you guys think about the U.S. and the other nations that have the
: smallpox virus? Will the nations really destroy their stocks or will the
: governments keep a little just in case? I cannot imagine that some
: element in our government would allow this to happen.
Given the sequence, the virus could be re-created. The easiest method
would be to transfer the pathogenic genes into a related strain. This
type of manipulation would probably be within the capabilities of many
university research labs.
Removing the last vials from the hands of organizations and researchers
law-abiding enough to give them up would not really eradicate the
threat that smallpox could be used as a weapon. At best, it would make
it more difficult.
Robert M. Horton
http://220.127.116.11 Have a :) day
"Scotty, try flushing the radioactive waste into the ventilation system!"
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