Why Smallpox Will Make A Comeback: Canadian Researchers Spend Only $100,000 To Reconstitute Extinct Virus
Mac Slavo
July 18th, 2017
SHTFplan.com
The Eradication of smallpox was arguably one of the greatest medical achievements of the modern era. A disease which killed at least 300 million people in the 20th century alone, was snuffed out after decades of hard work by scientists and doctors, and after over a billion dollars (adjusted for inflation) was spent on vaccination campaigns.
Unfortunately, this achievement could be easily undone with modern technology, and at a tiny fraction of what it initially cost to eradicate smallpox. Last week it was revealed that a team of Canadian researchers managed to synthesize an extinct strain of smallpox, by piecing together several mail order samples.
The horsepox virus the Canadian team created is not a threat to human health — or even the health of horses — should it ever escape from a lab. And it’s not the first virus created by putting pieces of DNA together in the right sequence.
Still, the news that a team headed by David Evans, a professor of medical microbiology and immunology, had accomplished this feat — at a relatively low cost of about $100,000 plus labor — was a bit of a wakeup call. The news was first reported Thursday in Science Magazine.
“This is an example of what modern technologies can do,” noted Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
This is a harbinger for how dangerous our future will be. These scientists have just demonstrated how easy it now is to reconstitute long dead viruses, including smallpox. As one virologist put it, “No question. If it’s possible with horsepox, it’s possible with smallpox.”
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