17 January 2017

RACE TO MAKE A VACCINE FOR THE PLAGUE AMID FEARS TERRORISTS COULD BE TURNING IT INTO A WEAPON TO WIPE OUT MILLIONS; EDITING DNA IS AS EASY AS EDITING A MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT

 by RC Porter 

Mia de Graaf had an article on the January 13, 2017 edition of London’s the Daily Mail Oniline website on an issue that is worrisome, and deadly — potentially causing hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide in a very short period of time. She begins by noting that “scientists [globally] are racing to create a vaccine for the plague — before terrorists develop,” the means, method, and capability to weaponize a biological doomsday bomb. The plague, known as the Black Death, was responsible for wiping out at least a third of Europe’s population alone in the mid-1300s’. Originating in Central Asia, the plague or Black Death, made its way across the sea, via infected rats on board the various trading vessels making their way to Europe. Once the plague arrived in the summer of 1348, it spread across the continent with remarkable speed; and, was referred to as an equal opportunity killer — a master of peasants and kings alike. Six out of every ten people infected would go on to die a very painful, and miserable death. By the time the disease began to fade nine months later, millions of people across the globe had died. Indeed, the outbreak of the plague in the 14th century is considered the most lethal catastrophe in recorded human history.

Using these same casualty rates, a modern-day outbreak of the plague would result in 5 million dead in London alone, all in just nine months. For the modern day U.S. it could mean nearly 200 million dead in that same time period — a staggering and incomprehensible tragedy. 

“There are three strains of the plague,” Ms. de Graaf explains: pneumonic, bubonic, and septicemic — all caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis. The most common type is the bubonic plague,, typically found on animals; and transferred to humans via fleas. It was the bubonic plague that caused the Black Death,as well as America’s first outbreak in 1900 — when infected animals were imported from Asia to San Francisco. However the pneumonic plague, which is airborne, is fatal almost 100 percent of the time. Crucially, all three strains are hard to diagnose, with early symptoms resembling the cold, or flu,” — which makes it difficult to diagnose in the crucial early hours when antibiotic treatment is most effective. 

“Experts warn that the plague, or Black Death, is one of the most likely candidates terrorists could employ as a biological weapon of mass destruction. “Lead scientist, Dr. Ashok Chopra, who’s research is being backed by the Department of Defense (DoD) warns the [nightmare] scenario is a more realistic prospect than is generally understood.. “Terrorists can easily grow plague bacteria; as well as make strains’ resistant to antibiotics,” Dr. Chopra, a micro-biologist and immunologist at the University of Texas told the Daily Mail. “The pneumonic plague is very contagious, and very hard to treat; and it could [probably would] kill [hundreds] of millions. It is not unrealistic to think that we would experience the same numbers of mass casualties, as was experienced in the mid-1300s.”.

“Antibiotics is the only cure — but, they must be administered within the first 24 hours or so, in order to be effective,” Ms de Graaf wrote. More worrisome, strains of the plague are showing a growing resistance to antibiotics, with one strain resistant to a highly toxic, last-resort antibiotic. Dr. Chopra the Daily Mail that “it is incredibly easy to re-purpose the pneumonic plague and make it resistant to any and all antibiotics, It is really easy to grow the organism,” Dr. Chopra said. All that is needed is “a very low dose, and not very sophisticated equipment. Antibiotic resistance is a major problem already; and, terrorists can easily make strains antibiotic resistant,” so it is critical that a vaccine be developed, in order to hopefully prevent a repeat of what occurred in the mid-1300s. 

New Gene Editing Technology Is Cheap & Easy To Do — And, No One Is Prepared For The Consequences 

Unfortunately, one does not have to be a microbiologist, or virologist to create a doomsday bug such as the one that killed millions in the mid -1300s. Vivek Wadhwa, wrote in the September 8, 2015 edition of the Singularity Hub, that “until recently, editing DNA required sophisticated labs, years of experience, and many thousands of dollars,” not to mention a degree in microbiology, virology, etc But, not anymore. “The use of clustered, regularly inter-spaced, short, palindromic repeats, or CRISPRs, discovered by scientists just a few years ago,” has leveled the playing field, so to speak — so that someone with little knowledge and experience in biology, etc., can easily create a doomsday bug.

“CRISPRs are elements of an ancient system that protects bacteria, and other, single-celled organisms from viruses, acquiring immunity to them by incorporating genetic elements from the virus invaders,” Mr. Wadhwa wrote. “And, this bacterial, antiviral defense serves as an astonishingly cheap, simple, elegant way to quickly edit the DNA of any organism in the lab. To set up a CRISPR editing capability, a lab only needs to order an RNA fragment (costing about $10) and purchase off-the-shelf chemicals and enzymes for $30 or less.” 

“Because CRISPR is cheap, and easy to use, it has both revolutionized, and democratized genetic research,” Mr. Wadhwa observes. “Hundreds, if not thousands of labs are now experimenting with CRISPR-based editing projects.” And, access to the WorldWide Web, provides instantaneous know-how, for a would-be terrorist — bent on killing hundreds of millions of people. As Mr. Wadhwa warns, “though a nuclear weapon can cause tremendous, long-lasting damage, the ultimate biological doomsday machine — is bacteria, because they can spread so quickly, and quietly.”

“No one is prepared for an era, when editing DNA is as easy as editing a Microsoft Word document.”

This observation, and warning, is why the current scientific efforts aimed at developing a vaccine for the plague; and, hopefully courses of action for any number of doomsday biological weapons. With the proliferation of drones as a potential method of delivery, the threat seems overwhelming. Even if we are successful in eradicating the world of the cancer known as militant Islam, there would still be the demented soul, bent on killing as many people as possible, in the shortest amount of time, no matter if their doomsday bug kills them as well. That’s why the research currently being done on the plague is so important. 

As the science fiction/horror writer Stephen King once wrote “God punishes us for what we cannot imagine.” V/R, RCP

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