If you are not aware, virologists are upset because their research is being censored for fear of bio-terrorism.
A line early on that might not catch your eye, “an order of magnitude greater than the mortality rate of roughly 2.5% seen during the catastrophic flu pandemic of 1918.” may not be that clear. An order of magnitude means 10 times greater than. This article
and the replies to it give a better picture of what is being discussed: “… the current H5N1 mortality rate is in the 60% range.” It just hasn’t been transmitted via air in the general population. Now two labs know how to make it so that ferrets can spread it to each other via air. The purpose is to understand what to look for in the wild virus to indicate it may be developing that capability.
We learned about biosafety levels in our lab training at the university. I do agree with those in the first article who feel that BSL-4 is in order due to the severe consequences should it be released. But since the virus may mutate to be airborne even if terrorists don’t have a thing to do with it, I do think that much research needs to be done on it and fast.
I couldn’t go see Contagion.
And maybe I should get a flu shot this year…
And why is Rob Ford doing the Nutcracker bigger news than this?