I agree that there have been too many cross-posts about subjects completely
unrelated to virology. I sent replies to some of the persons generating
these cross-posts and asked them to refrain from posting responses to that
subject on virology.net. It seemed to work and I would encourage others to
join in. I am somewhat of a neophyte at this but imagine that there is a
term for this practice (electronic mail-bombing??) and would hope that it is
not illegal. If we were at a scientific meeting and someone wanted to
discuss some esoteric topic I'm sure at least some of us would let the
person know the error of their ways.
IMHO immunization is related to virology (unless you want to limit this
entirely to benchwork and related topics) though the topic has been gone
over more times than a roadkilled possum on 285. We need to avoid even the
appearance of elitism as this is one forum where laypersons can ask
questions from scientists with a variety of interests, experiences and
backgrounds. I just saw an statement where someone from the NSF was saying
that we were increasingly having to justify science in the absence of a cold
war. (Neat huh - if we're not going to help kill anybody then why have us
around). This forum provides some opportunity to explain what we do as well
as to expose future scientists to our fields/crafts/disciplines.
Ralph Cordell
(The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of the CDC
or Federal government)
