Dr. Anthony Fauci: Ebola Can Be Weaponized
By Cathy Burke
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, 16 Sep 2014
Recalling that the Soviet Union stockpiled hemorrhagic fevers during the Cold War, a federal health official warned Tuesday the Ebola virus could be similarly wielded as a potential weapon of mass destruction.
“Theoretically, you can manipulate almost any virus to change it in any way you want,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, Anthony Fauci, told a Senate hearing, The Hill reports.
“The only trouble is, it wouldn’t be easy for somebody to do that in their backyard laboratory. They would probably kill themselves doing it. It would take a state-type [actor].”
Fauci, whose agency is part of the National Institutes of Health, told lawmakers Ebola will continue to mutate in potentially dangerous ways unless it’s contained.
For example, he pointed out, Ebola now is spread through bodily fluids, but there’s a possibility — albeit slim — it could become airborne over time.
“It is an unusual situation where a mutation would completely change the way a virus is transmitted,” he said, The Hill reported. “It is not impossible but it would be unlikely.”
“We never take anything like that lightly. Changing transmissibility … is obviously something that could be a frightening thing.”
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