Pandemic pandemonium
The global killer that flu the coop
You’d have to have been under a rock not to have heard about last month’s worldwide killer flu scare
In case you missed it somehow, an American medical laboratory mistakenly sent samples of a 50-year-old deadly influenza flu virus (called the H2N2 “Asian” strain) to nearly 5000 other labs in 18 countries last month. Back in 1957, this same virus killed as many as FOUR MILLION people worldwide. Why are mass quantities of disease samples being produced and shipped out to these labs, you’re asking?
Because medical labs need to constantly check the effectiveness of their testing methods and apparatuses to retain or renew their certifications. And certain companies, like the one that inadvertently circulated H2N2 globally (Ohio’s Meridian Bioscience, Inc.), house enormous stockpiles of pathogens and specialize in the production of disease “test kits” that help labs sharpen, maintain or broaden their testing and diagnostic expertise. These kits contain unlabeled samples of diseases that labs must test and correctly identify to maintain their reputable standing.
Usually, however, the viruses and bacteria included in these specialized “test kits” are non-lethal forms of influenza and other illnesses. Should an accidental exposure occur in a lab somewhere, anyone exposed to the virus might be inconvenienced with a bout of the flu, but not be killed or become the unwitting carriers of a global pandemic.
However, somehow Meridian Bioscience chose for mass distribution the lethal H2N2 virus from its disease stockpile. And what’s really disconcerting is that they apparently didn’t even know they had it – or didn’t know exactly what it was. According to a recent Associated Press report, Meridian obtained the virus from another company’s “germ library” they acquired in 2000. They’d had it routinely classified as an innocuous strain of a typical type A flu virus.
Naturally, the CDC and the World Health Organization have called for the immediate and complete destruction of the samples – yet still classifies the risk of a global killer H2N2 outbreak as “slight.” So, as long as these 5000 or so labs destroy the samples, everything’s hunky-dory, right?
Theoretically, anyway. But how can we (the CDC, the WHO, or anyone else) really make SURE that the H2N2 specimens are destroyed? We can’t. And although most of the test kits were sent to labs here in the U.S., the deadly disease samples were also sent to 17 other nations around the world, including some that aren’t too friendly to the United States. Keep reading
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Putting the weapons in our enemies’ hands
Although the CDC and WHO have classified the chances of an ACCIDENTAL outbreak of H2N2 as low, they fail to speculate publicly about the chances of a not-so-accidental pandemic of the virus. I mean, let’s face it: The notion that someone might intentionally spread a deadly disease isn’t so far fetched. Remember the still-unsolved anthrax attacks from 2001?
Here’s what’s even scarier about this possibility: Meridian sent the deadly virus samples to labs in some countries that have a history of hostility to the U.S. – including Lebanon and SAUDI ARABIA.
That’s right, we sent samples of a deadly virus for which virtually everyone in this country under age 36 has no immunity against (they stopped administering the H2N2 vaccine in 1968) to the homeland of Osama Bin Laden, and 15 of the 19 September 11th suicide pilots. Hmmm.
Worried yet? I am.
Look, it’s easy enough for terrorists to get their hands on bio-toxins without us sending them free samples, don’t you agree? In my opinion, this worldwide distribution of H2N2 should carry some pretty harsh punishment – after all, millions of Americans could end up on the slab if some militant whack-job finds a way to circulate the virus on these shores.
But I could find no mentions of fines, pending indictments, seizures from the lab, or any other disciplinary action in any of the 3 AP stories I read about the crisis. Unbelievable! According to one of the pieces, Meridian hasn’t even modified its profit projections for the quarter in response to the scandal.
All of this is beside the point, though. What I’m really wondering (and shuddering) about is what other kinds of deadly pathogens are out there in the disease stockpiles of labs like Meridian. What if there’s somehow a mis-labeled 40-year-old vial of killer smallpox lurking in the back of some lab’s refrigerator, just waiting to be accidentally loosed upon the world?
Or worse yet, sent to one of our arch-enemies.
Worried sick – about an attack of “Bin-fluenza,”
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
