In the last several days I have managed to watch the first two episodes of an interesting, if not scary, documentary titled Un-Natural Selection on Netflix. I followed that with an article I read in The Week magazine about the origins of the Covid-19 virus and I got a bit concerned.
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| Unnatural Selection Title Slide Episode 3 |
The Netflix documentary series highlighted several related topics dealing with genetic engineering. It told me that, contrary to my previous notions about CRISPR (clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and genetic engineering, there are kitchen and garage entrepreneurs performing these feats with materials and equipment they legally bought on the Internet. They are creating glow-in-the-dark frogs, dogs that can be more muscular, certain muscle enhancements for humans, and home-brew HIV medications, among other experiments. I had previously assumed that such activity was so expensive and complicated that it would only be done in advanced labs; I was wrong.
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| Does your new apple taste a bit fishy? |
The article on Covid-19 (Coronavirus) dealt with its origins in China, which traced the animal to human connection to a bat virus that somehow mutated with genetic material from a soldierfish and then infected humans. This all happened naturally without human intervention save for the humans being infected and then spreading it around. Then the article went on to mention that in 2014, a laptop was captured from ISIS that contained instructions on how to weaponize plague bacteria.
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| Bats are reservoirs for more than 60 viruses that can infect humans. |
Therefore, genetic engineering is well within the grasp of mere mortals with at least a rudimentary knowledge of science, and we now know that someone in ISIS is considering that possibility. We can imagine that ISIS’s intentions are not to make a better tomato but probably something more nefarious. That sounds like a nightmare scenario that our intelligence services would be wise to address. I feel a bit uncomfortable with my newfound knowledge when I realize that our intelligence services have been ridiculed and marginalized by our current administration for reasons that are not readily apparent.
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| Perhaps VP Pence could investigate |
While genetic engineering advancements have a huge upside with cures and treatments for debilitating and deadly diseases, the power to play Darwin-on-steroids appears to be well beyond the bioethicists’ current debate schedule. This technology is now outside government-monitored labs and in the hands of anyone with motivation to do good or evil. We have dealt with H1N1, H5N1, MERS, SARS, and Ebola, which were accidents of nature that killed millions of people over the years; 50 million died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic alone. What if people decided to manufacture their own novel virus?
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| This is a sign that was posted during 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic |
Covid-19 is a novel virus in that, while influenza viruses move around the globe every year, they are not novel until they carry different hemagglutinin or neuraminidase protein than the strains already in circulation. No, I didn’t recently get a medical degree but that explanation made clear(?) why this new Coronavirus qualifies for the “pandemic” label. While a repeat of the tragedy of 1918 is highly unlikely now that we have better drugs and treatments, it is having a broader impact on our new global economy. Our just-in-time manufacturing ability and modern transportation methods have increased our vulnerability beyond the impact of the illness.
Many of these viruses are zoonotic in that they can jump species and many are linked to bats. My fear is that, with newly available technologies and home genetic engineering, what happens when some random human goes “bat-shit crazy” and decides to nudge evolution and brew up a new virus cocktail of their own?
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| Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. |
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| It's Alive! |
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