Although a great read, I think the chance for it to mutate into something more dangerous (god forbid airborne etc) may be pretty high.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/09/hiv-mutation.html

I have a bit of time between work so I thought I would throw in a few observations if no one minds... mostly from an historical point of view.

Viruses are actually quite fascinating in a scary sort of way. Their influence on our history is enormous. The conquest of America by the Europeans can in some part be attributed to viruses. It is interesting to note that the Native Americans caught every virus we had... but we caught fairly little if anything from them. Generally this is attributed to the fact that native Americans had few domesticated animals and sparser, more spread out populations. Europeans had gotten used to entire cycles of disease, and were considerably better immunized than the Native American population. Certain diseases, like smallpox, hit the Native Americans like a bomb.

Interestingly... there is a rather interesting branch of virology that is studying Darwinian effects on viruses. In short, viruses tend to evolve from a deadly strain to a less deadly strain... which explains why we have not been wiped out in the past.

When a deadly virus infects a person, it will kill it's host in a varying length of time. This however, limits the virus's ability to propagate itself. The faster it kills, the less opportunity the virus has of spreading to other hosts. In addition, viruses are constantly mutating... that is part of their strength. However, when a virus has a branch off that is less lethal, that viral strain will tend to out perform the more lethal one based on being more able to spread and survive. The organisms that have been infected by the less lethal virus and have survived are also more likely to be able to resist the more lethal form of the virus.

In this way, viruses mutate from deadly to less deadly.. to annoying. The most effective and ever present virus in our history is the common cold. Darwinism at work for us for once.

I see the common cold as a threat to our lives. You may call me a madman before hearing my thoughts, but it's true.

As the name implies, the common cold is found practically everywhere, and very easy to catch up.
One problem with actually defeating it is it's strains. There are so much strains that is impossible to have single powerful "cure-all" drug/vaccine.
Moreover, being so common (and not always feared at all) gives it a deadly advantage, to a have high degree and chances of mutations.
The result could be the feared deadly virus found once in a zillion chances, causing a huge deadly pandemic.

Of course, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to induce fear. It is not my intention, but please do realize that the possibility is there, even if very small.

My point? The chance may be even larger then the LHC going wrong (as a fair comparison).

Yet, no one really gives it any concern.


Kind regards,
Christian Sciberras.