NIH have had a page on their website since Feb 04 naming Lyme as one of the "potential" agents of bioterrorism that they have been studying in high-security labs.
Yes, I kid you not. Even the NIH admits that that "hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure" disease would make a jazzy bioweapon.
The page is still there as of the time of writing(Sun 20 Nov 2005 GMT 15:00).
That's the beauty of an enormous disorganised bureaucracy - sometimes things leak out without the guy paid to deny them realising.
Wonder what will become of poor old bowling-ball-headed NIH Lyme Program Officer Dr PB now that this has slipped out under his very nose? I hope he is as good at making coffee as his predecessor, Dr Mc, removed from the position for embarrassing the NIH by publicly harassing Lyme activists. Otherwise he may end up unemployed and sleeping in the gutter soon. If so, I think we should reward his years of boundless empathy for Lyme patients, by lending him stacks of ALDF material which he can burn in an upturned rubbish bin to keep himself warm.
Here's the juicy bit followed by the URL:
"Are NIAID scientists already studying potential agents of bioterrorism?
Even before the current emphasis on biodefense, NIAID scientists had been studying organisms that cause a variety of infectious diseases. Potentially, some of these microbes also could be used as **agents of bioterrorism**. Examples of diseases caused by these agents include plague, **Lyme disease**, rabies, tick-borne encephalitis, West Nile virus disease, influenza, anthrax infection, Ebola virus hemorrhagic fever, HIV, tuberculosis, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, and Q fever. All of this work has been carried out in either the Maryland or Montana laboratories with required safety measures in place."
Southampton Lyre
Posted by robi (Member # 5547) on :
hmmmmmmmmmmm......link is not working
robi
Posted by Southampton Lyre (Member # 8310) on :
quote:Originally posted by robi: hmmmmmmmmmmm......link is not working
robi
I've edited the link to include the ".htm" at the end, but the LymeNet software is still retaining it as the original link. Try pasting this into your browser: www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/detrick_qa.htm
I just tried it and was able to access the page okay.
I don't think Dr PB , Lyme spin-doc at NIH, works on Sundays, though the Steerites who watch this group might just get him out of bed now....
Southampton Lyre
Posted by groovy2 (Member # 6304) on :