Super Flu Control

By Matthew Spinks

The article I recently read in the Decemeber 2009 edition of Dicovery Magazine,stats that contrary to the populatirty of the H1N1 virus, decided to discuss the regular flu virus and the factors that contribute to its vaccination. As many people know, different viral strains spring up almost every few months, and although many have tried, these mutations are still relatively unexplainable. Some become resistant to certain earthly factors, and some are just reproducing, but how do we manage to control these new viruses? Well, as you may or may not know, many of the original strains of certain viruses are owned by different medical centers around the world. Now, when these viruses spread, they are free to whomever catches them, but when they are contained they are held under certain legal restrictions by different countries for both testing and observation. This may not seem like a big deal, but when looking at a much larger picture, that means that only one place (usually in the entire world unless you can coax these places with political negotiations) with the means to supply a vaccine to a possible world pandemic. Formally, these facilities hold the possibility of life or death within their grasp and are free to exercise eminent domain of such horrors at their own free will. It is arguable that with proper management and care, these issues are irrelevant, but should a time come when we are at war with a nation (for example Russia) and they decide to release a horrific strain of smallpox (as this is the only country [as far as it is known] with a living sample of Smallpox). They could manipulate any competitors to their will with just a simple threat of unleashing it upon a society, and governments would be forced to comply to avoid such a biological catastrophe. So, in closing, this article just discussed the control of viruses, how costly some viruses are, and hypothetical scenarios and conflict controls of such viruses can cause.