I read another story last month in which they said that aids was found to be an altered version of Ebola, and that would mean that it is a man made virus. If you could engineer a way to make a two part KO punch that had almost 100% effectiveness, you could really do some damage while making sure that you were not one of the targets.
While it is possible now to use enzymes to cut peptide and other DNA and RNA bonds to modify viruses, this technology is relatively new. Nobody had it in the 1970's, when HIV was introduced into the human population.
Even so, what they're doing with Ebola right now is modifying its slime coat to make it more beneficial. Yes, gene therapy is possible. Yes, Ebola can be theoretically mixed with the AIDS virus but to what end? Ebola's killing process is one of rapid onset, not insidious infection. AIDS doesn't kill right away, but instead destroys the body's immune system over a period of months or years. Combining a quick-kill with a slow-kill doesn't make any sense. One of the reasons why Ebola hasn't had a serious outbreak is, ironically, because of its rapid lethality.
I mean, you can worry about that too if you like. But monkeying with bacteria is worlds easier than monkeying with viruses, and if someone is trying to breed a "superbug" like TB the same way MRSA has been bred in this country through stupidity of antibiotic use, imagine what will happen when XDR TB is unleashed upon this continent, and all the igorant people who didn't take their meds properly suddenly start coming down with TB, follow their same pattern of not finishing their drug regimen, thus becoming breeding grounds for more drug-resistant bacteria.
If you ask me, it's pretty darn smart of China to hit us in our ignorant spot.
I don't know what to tell you, other than we, the United States, as a culture, have become both arrogant and stupid, and it's about to bite us all on the butt.
How you'd like to handle that situation is up to you.
S
