On Sun, 18 Oct 1998 16:24:36 +0100, "Deano" <deanwaller at email.msn.com>
wrote:
>Hi. I hope you don't mind me butting in but bio-warfare is a subject that
>really interests me and I have been following your conversation.
>There are many viruses that fulfil most of the criteria for being a
>doomsday virus. Diseases such as certain strains of Ebola and Marlbro (sp?)
>have a mortality rate of 90-100%, an incubation period of about 72 hours and
>it wouldn't take long for a strain to mutate and become airborne.
I think you will find it is nearer 80% mortality for Ebola and 25% for
Marburg and both have an incubation period of 10 days. And as for them
becoming airborne, that just happened in "Outbreak" at an appropriate
dramatic moment. If they were going to mutate and become airborne they
would probably have done it by now.
I am not dismissing biological warfare, but we have to try not to get
too carried away. It is perfectly possible that these viruses have
been engineered to be more virulent for use in biological weapons, but
the likelihood of them being used by one nation against another is
pretty remote.
Hope you don't mind me butting in here, but we should really try to
keep things in perspective.
fybog
