Ebola

[Ken L]

Ken,

 

Given there are 7 billion(ish) of us - calculate your "stats" for a generation.

 

Phone

 

As for fags - I know I know (I said I'd NEVER pay fifty cents for a pack) yet I still smoke. Best I've ever done is to cut back to "0" for 20 yrs. My comment was intended to point out the oxymoron that "tobacco is now the source for saving the world from disease - Ebola"

 

It'd barely take another two moths to top out at 7.5 billion but we both know that won't happen because that sort of growth assumes constant access to new victims, no changes in behaviours, no new drugs etc. I was just illustrating the power of the sort of exponential growth that has been sustained over the last few months to take this thing from it's currently rather modest toll to something truly terrifying.

My suspicion is that it will however end up with numbers of victims that will dwarf the WHO warning of 20,000.

 

The tobacco thing is odd. They're using the plant to synthesize proteins. That's all well and good but why do these biotech companies have to alter the germ lines of animals and plants that are used for human consumption (in any form) when they want to produce their novel compounds?

I'm not against GM on principle but that just seems stupid.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Ken L

[chesters1]

hold your horses i doubt ebola will kill as many as tobacco has ,its like comparing the invention of nobel and forgetting what it was used for

 

 

thats strange in the minute my wifi disapeared mr bush and him telling us tobacco was ok post has gone so i replied to mr kenl

instead

should have quoted ,darn

Edited September 4, 2014 by chesters1

[chesters1]

its been found in the wild in america

fhttp://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/30/health/ebola-us/index.html

Edited October 1, 2014 by chesters1

[corydoras]

 

It'd barely take another two moths to top out at 7.5 billion but we both know that won't happen because that sort of growth assumes constant access to new victims, no changes in behaviours, no new drugs etc. I was just illustrating the power of the sort of exponential growth that has been sustained over the last few months to take this thing from it's currently rather modest toll to something truly terrifying.

My suspicion is that it will however end up with numbers of victims that will dwarf the WHO warning of 20,000.

 

The tobacco thing is odd. They're using the plant to synthesize proteins. That's all well and good but why do these biotech companies have to alter the germ lines of animals and plants that are used for human consumption (in any form) when they want to produce their novel compounds?

I'm not against GM on principle but that just seems stupid.

It's not so much the plant that is genetically modified, it's a virus that attacks the plant.that is genetically modified. I suspect in this case it is a Tobacco Mosaic Virus that has been genetically modified so that some parts of it resemble the Ebola virus. The plants are them infected by the modified virus and so develop plant anti-bodies. The plants are then harvested, homogenised and the antibodies extracted.

 

It is safer to to this with plant viruses because plant viruses tend to be host species specific and so the risk of them mutating into a virus that could infect mammals is reduced.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-06/ebola-drug-from-tobacco-part-of-promising-therapies.html

Edited October 1, 2014 by corydoras

[Ken L]

It's not so much the plant that is genetically modified, it's a virus that attacks the plant that is genetically modified

 

Fair enough but without wishing to take this one off topic, that's not always the case.

 

I see that Ebola is still cutting a swath through west Africa with even the WHO is now admitting that there are major problems with the counting of victims and that the actual total is at least two to three times greater than the official 3100 figure. Projections about likely final death tolls have now also elevated from 20,000 to well in excess of a million.

Everything seems to be too little too late.

Meanwhile, the crazies are coming out as well as a few rather unlikely stories.

[corydoras]

Fair enough but without wishing to take this one off topic, that's not always the case.

 

I see that Ebola is still cutting a swath through west Africa with even the WHO is now admitting that there are major problems with the counting of victims and that the actual total is at least two to three times greater than the official 3100 figure. Projections about likely final death tolls have now also elevated from 20,000 to well in excess of a million.

Everything seems to be too little too late.

Meanwhile, the crazies are coming out as well as a few rather unlikely stories.

Send me a wee PM then Ken

[Ken L]

Send me a wee PM then Ken

 

Nah, I've opened up a new thread. We'll keep this one for the nasty virus because I suspect that the Ebola story will run and run.

[Phone]

Cory,

 

First hand, since we grow tobacco in Weston MO, we, I personally, have sold tobacco for both harvested plant tissues or plant cells grown in-vitro in bioreactors (float beds).

 

The tobacco must be delivered to the lab quickly as the protein turns into carb (maybe it was starch?). Not only are they using it for medical purposes but also for high protein food.

 

Phone

Edited October 1, 2014 by Phone

[Sportsman]

Interesting

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-03/ebola-hospital-mistakes-are-scarier-than-risk-of-infection-in-u-dot-s#r=lr-sr

almost certainly the case in the UK as well.

[chesters1]

Interesting

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-03/ebola-hospital-mistakes-are-scarier-than-risk-of-infection-in-u-dot-s#r=lr-sr

almost certainly the case in the UK as well.

Newt and Mr Bush ,farewell nice knowing you ,have we banned air travel to the UK ?,thought not goodbye everyone else ,nice and quiet out here in the sticks ,time for gated compounds?