eluvianna

“Nothing was permanent. Any city could crumble, but foes could also become allies, even friends. There was no more wisdom in cynicism than in optimism.”
― Madeleine Roux, Shadows Rising

“The CDC and three other research groups submitted a paper for publication in the journal Science detailing how they had reconstructed the 1918 H1N1 influenza virus, using virus genes that had been identified in lung samples of patients who died during the 1918 pandemic.”
― Michael T. Osterholm, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

“What we really need is a game-changing influenza vaccine that will target the conserved—or unchanging—features of the influenza viruses that are more likely to cause human influenza pandemics and subsequently seasonal influenza in the following years.”
― Michael T. Osterholm, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

“Most frightening of all was Alibek’s recounting of experiments to insert the gene of Venezuelan equine encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus that attacks the brain—into vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine. If this were successful, it would be only a small step to put it into smallpox itself, with which he assured us Biopreparat had been well stocked, creating a superweapon against which the US vaccine would not work. This research was part of an organized program, he told us, known as the Chimera Project.”
― Michael T. Osterholm, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs