Is This The Long Awaited Pandemic?

[Peter Lemkin]

Very interesting isn't it? Assassination (attempt) by virus? Reminds me of the attempt on Carter by the two whose names contained 'Lee Harvey Oswald' Just a warning about who is in charge. I wonder how Obama is taking it all? I wonder who arranged the visit to Mexico? And when?

Well, as far as I know the President and top officials regularly take several drugs to ward-off antrax, flu and other diseases. There are also easier ways to kill a President [Dallas or (fill-in the assasination or accident)]. If it was such, it also put the whole f'n Planet at risk. Now 110 dead and counting.....

....the most frightening thing I just heard was an interview with a top World virologist who said he sees signs the virus is now starting to form more virulent forms [this is a natural process with this kind of new virus the human body is not used to]. If this happens [and it can continue to happen over and over], things will be very grim indeed. It seems [best I can find out now - very limited information] that the incubation period is about one week [when the person is symptomless]...the longer, the more dangerous they will / can infect others without knowing it. This is the middle range of incubation period, but not a good number.

The most puzzling thing is that the only dead have been in Mexico, while by the odds some in the USA and elsewhere should also find it fatal. Second, it is most virulent to those in the age range 20-40, just as the 'Spanish Flu' of 1918. It seems to be a new varient of that old one perhaps? Flu usually most effects the very young and the very old - and show NO preference for nationality. Many puzzles here. One other thing. Read the article below and not the timing - just days before the flu outbreak....hmmm.....

http://www.boston.com/news/science/artic...n_mystery/


WASHINGTON - The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md., is under investigation by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command for the possible disappearance of some of its stock of deadly pathogens, an Army spokesman said.

The Frederick News-Post reported yesterday that since at least February, agents have been trying to discover what happened to pathogens that may have gone missing from 1987 to 2008. The investigation coincides with the suspension of most research at the Army lab in February as authorities attempt to find errors in an inventory of their biological materials.

Christopher Grey, public affairs chief for the Criminal Investigation Command, confirmed yesterday that the command is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the institute. "We have an ongoing investigation at Fort Detrick," Grey said, but he declined to say when the investigation began or when it is likely to be completed.

The investigation seems to center on missing samples of Venezuelan equine encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus that usually causes a mild flulike illness but can also cause brain inflammation and death. It has potential for use as a biological weapon, but is far less lethal than some other agents the lab works with, such as anthrax bacteria and Ebola virus.

The News-Post cited two support staff members who said they had been questioned by investigators from Fort Meade, Md., about missing samples of the virus. Alan Schmaljohn, a longtime scientist at the lab who now works for the University of Maryland, said he had also been questioned two or three months ago as someone who once had access to the virus.

"They caught me on my cellphone on the road and I stopped and talked to them for quite a long time," Schmaljohn said.

Schmaljohn said it wasn't clear from the questions exactly what the investigators sought, though he believed they wanted to know what happened to three missing vials carrying small quantities of the virus.

"The number of vials is utterly meaningless," Schmaljohn said. "Three vials missing is no indication of any evildoing. . . . It's almost equivalent to saying you're missing 3 cents out of the national budget. . . . From the scientists' point of view it is inconsequential, but from the regulator's point of view it is an indication of sloppiness, and they are finally going to take rugged action."

A problem in accounting for Venezuelan equine encephalitis was what triggered the earlier suspension of most research at the lab. A spot check in January found 20 samples of the virus in a box of vials instead of the 16 that had been listed in the institute's database, Caree Vander Linden, the spokeswoman for the institute, said in February.

The lab has been under heavy pressure to tighten security since anthrax attacks in 2001 that killed five people and sickened 17 others. FBI investigators think the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year.