Vaccine Developed Against Ebola 100
New submitter Lurching writes "Scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against a deadly form of the Ebola virus. First identified in 1976, Ebola fever kills more than 90% of the people it infects. The researchers say that this is the first Ebola vaccine to remain viable long-term and can therefore be successfully stockpiled. The results are reported in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (abstract)."
Re:Followed by weaponization? (Score:5, Informative)
There's nothing in the Geneva Convention about Thai hookers..
Actually, There is:
ARTICLE 27 [icrc.org]
Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.
Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.
Without prejudice to the provisions relating to their state of health, age and sex, all protected persons shall be treated with the same consideration by the Party to the conflict in whose power they are, without any adverse distinction based, in particular, on race, religion or political opinion.
However, the Parties to the conflict may take such measures of control and security in regard to protected persons as may be necessary as a result of the war.
Re:Followed by weaponization? (Score:2, Informative)
There's nothing in the Geneva Convention about Thai hookers..
Actually, There is:
ARTICLE 27 [icrc.org]
[...] Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.
So, ENFORCED prostitution is banned, but if they do prostitution out of their own will, then it is not banned.
Re:Thank goodness (Score:2, Informative)
I am not sure where you are shopping for your mice but where I shop you can get them for between $90 (http://jaxmice.jax.org/strain/002376.html) and $2000 (http://jaxmice.jax.org/strain/010562.html) depending on how the stock is maintained.
Making targeted genetic modifications in mice from scratch costs about $15,000-$20,000
Re:Thank goodness (Score:2, Informative)
There is no conceivable way to do vaccine research without animals. Computational chemistry or biology does not apply here. The gold standard for a vaccine is whether or not it protects from challenge with the the pathogen, and secondarily if it generates a good neutralizing antibody titer and robust T cell response. These are things we know very little about in the big picture. We know enough of the variables to build testable models, but we don't know >99$% of the variables. This is something non-biologists fail to understand, and that's why we've got to use animals in research for the foreseeable future--probably 150-200 years, not 15-20.
Re:Followed by weaponization? (Score:5, Informative)
I was stationed in Thailand in 1974. Unlike most of our western countries, hookers are respeced, even revered, in Thailand. Nobody has to force them.