> As a representative of your "ignorant" general public, I would
like to say the
You are probably taking things out of context: you must realise that
this newsgroup has, as its mainstays, REAL virologists - people who
are experts in their field. And if they criticise something on the
basis of its science, it is maybe as well to listen. So if someone
said "ignorant general public", it is meant in the sense of "people
who don't know much virology" rather than "stupid people".
> It even prompted me to look up your pompous newsgroup, for what it
was worth.
It's not really pompous - just serious. Remember, this is not in
fact a general newsgroup in the sense of sci.bio.microbiology or
whatever; it is actually a forum funded and run by the NF primarily
as a contact point for virologists. It is only since the advent of
commercial Internet access providers that the general public has had
a look-in - and it has meant people who ask serious questions from a
position of considerable knowledge being swamped by a flood of "I
need to do a paper, tell me everything about AIDS/Ebola/cat scratch
fever" type of questions. So they get a little testy (I know I do).
It is NOT a forum for the education of the public at large, though
if it manages to do some of that, then so much the better. That
help at all?
_____________________________________________________
| Ed Rybicki, PhD | (ed at molbiol.uct.ac.za) |
| Dept Microbiology | University of Cape Town |
| Private Bag, Rondebosch | 7700, South Africa |
| fax: xx27-21-650 4023 | tel: xx27-21-650 3265 |
| URL: http://www.uct.ac.za/microbiology |
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