What if it is not Ebola but a BioWarfare Weapon?

[billh1963]

What if it is not Ebola but a BioWarfare Weapon? | Shenandoah

This afternoon during my daily drives around paradise as part of my profession, I took the occasion to listen to the Sean Hannity Radio Show, something which happens infrequently due to my busy schedule. At the bottom of the first hour a caller named “Mike” who claimed to be a scientist and CEO of a large corporation during which he claimed that the government is in fact lying and that the disease currently causing problems in Dallas, TX and throughout West Africa is not Ebola but in fact the Marburg Virus (listen at this link towards the 24:50 mark). FWIW, the caller was indeed verified by Hannity’s staff so the conversation was quite disturbing not just because of his conclusions, but the other drastic paths his information could lead anyone with a brain into concluding.

Before proceeding to a very dark conclusion, first a brief education about the Marburg Virus aka Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever courtesy of the CDC website:


Marburg hemorrhagic fever (Marburg HF) is a rare but severe hemorrhagic fever which affects both humans and non-human primates. Marburg HF is caused by Marburg virus, a genetically unique zoonotic (or, animal-borne) RNA virus of the filovirus family. The five species of Ebola virus are the only other known members of the filovirus family.

Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Thirty-one people became ill, initially laboratory workers followed by several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them. Seven deaths were reported. The first people infected had been exposed to imported African green monkeys or their tissues while conducting research. One additional case was diagnosed retrospectively.

The reservoir host of Marburg virus is the African fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus. Fruit bats infected with Marburg virus do not to show obvious signs of illness. Primates (including humans) can become infected with Marburg virus, and may develop serious disease with high mortality. Further study is needed to determine if other species may also host the virus.

This Rousettus bat is a sighted, cave-dwelling bat widely distributed across Africa. Given the fruit bat’s wide distribution, more areas are potentially at risk for outbreaks of Marburg HF than previously suspected. The virus is not known to be native to other continents, such as North America.

Marburg HF typically appears in sporadic outbreaks throughout Africa; laboratory confirmed cases have been reported in Uganda, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Angola, and South Africa. Many of the outbreaks started with male mine workers working in bat-infested mines. The virus is then transmitted within their communities through cultural practices, under-protected family care settings, and under-protected health care staff. It is possible that sporadic, isolated cases occur as well, but go unrecognized.

Cases of Marburg HF have occurred outside Africa, such as during the 1967 outbreak, but are infrequent. In 2008, a Dutch tourist developed Marburg HF after returning to the Netherlands from Uganda, and subsequently died. Also in 2008, an American traveler developed Marburg HF after returning to the US from Uganda and recovered. Both travelers had visited a well-known cave inhabited by fruit bats in a national park.

They symptoms are somewhat interesting in light of recent developments also (also from the CDC):


After an incubation period of 5-10 days, symptom onset is sudden and marked by fever, chills, headache, and myalgia. Around the fifth day after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach), may occur. Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may then appear. Symptoms become increasingly severe and can include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction.

Because many of the signs and symptoms of Marburg hemorrhagic fever are similar to those of other infectious diseases such as malaria or typhoid fever, clinical diagnosis of the disease can be difficult, especially if only a single case is involved.

The case-fatality rate for Marburg hemorrhagic fever is between 23-90%.

What should disturb my readers is not the sudden appearance of what is being proclaimed by the media and out government as “Ebola” or a “strain of Ebola” but in fact the dark history behind the Marburg Virus which might yield an alternate path of analysis, courtesy of the phone caller to the Hannity show which one might want to start considering.

The Soviet Union had an extensive biological warfare division and unfortunately for the United States, much of what was created by their labs might be intact or worse, in the hands of other nations or powers more willing to use these weapons to achieve their goals of weakening the U.S. and its allies. The horrific prospect of a deliberate use of such a weapon should be considered if the facts ultimately verify that this actually is an outbreak of Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever.

The PBS science program, NOVA, did a story on the BioWarriors y back in November of 2001, shortly after the Anthrax attacks in the United States; of which no guilty party was ever discovered. This extract from the transcripts of Nova Online from the program is beyond chilling:

Horrors of the Soviet program NOVA:


What happened to the Soviet program in 1972? They signed the same international treaty the U.S. signed, ostensibly banning offensive BW research, didn’t they?

Patrick: In 1972, just as they signed the Biological Convention, the Soviet Union expanded their program. Since they didn’t have the United States to follow, they went out on their own. And at that point they started concentrating on lethal agents.

They weaponized anthrax. They weaponized smallpox. They weaponized Yersinia pestis or plague. They weaponized Marburg virus. They grew it to high concentrations in guinea pigs. Now, it takes a lot of guinea pigs to produce the amount of dry powder they had on hand when supposedly their program came to an end. They produced a very, very effective, scary product with Marburg virus.

NOVA: Why is that so scary?

Patrick: Because Marburg virus is lethal. It only takes one to two virus particles to cause an infection of the respiratory tract. There is no vaccine. And once you contract the disease, there is only one way to go, and that’s death. So it is very scary.

Sadly, the United States does not have a Cold War President which intimidates or frightens the Russian leadership but then again, just how effective would the dispersal of such a weapon be? From a Journal of the American Medical Association report by Luciana Borio, MD issued on May 8, 2002 (Full PDF at this link).

HISTORY AND POTENTIAL AS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS


Hemorrhagic fever viruses have been weaponized by the former Soviet Union, Russia, and the United States. There are reports that yellow fever may have been weaponized by North Korea. The former Soviet Union and Russia produced large quantities of Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, and New World arenaviruses (specifically, Junin and Machupo) until 1992.

Soviet Union researchers quantified the aerosol infectivity of Marburg virus for monkeys, determining that no more than a few virions are required to cause infection. Yellow fever and Rift Valley fever viruses were developed as weapons by the US offensive biological weapons program prior to its termination in 1969.
The Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Ebola virus as part of an effort to create biological weapons.

Several studies have demonstrated successful infection of nonhuman primates by aerosol preparations of Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, and New World arenaviruses. Arguments asserting that the absence of effective antiviral therapy and vaccines would make these viruses too dangerous to develop as weapons are not supported by the historical record.

In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified the HFVs as category A bioweapon agents, based on the potential to cause widespread illness and death, ease of dissemination or person-to-person transmission, potential for major public health impact, and requirement of special action for public health preparedness.

The questions are now is the Obama administration deliberately ignorant of this threat from Russia, or have powers like North Korea or China sold the weaponized forms of these diseases to Jihadists in order to disrupt Western influence in North Africa, or worse, used by a secondary world power (Russia or China) to eradicate all Western influence in the region to achieve a greater dominance over the resources in Africa by ejecting all Western corporations.

.................more...follow the link.....

[ckelly78z]

PARF it up !

[Mo_Gearhead]

ISIS, ISIL, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Muslim terrorists, comets hitting the earth? The "boogymen" change from decade to decade as we humans seem to swerve from one crisis to the next.

But in the end - it won't be rising sea levels, lack of fresh water, climate change, or nuclear weapons that destroy humankind. We won't need spy satellites, a pair of binoculars, boots on the ground, etc.

I think the 'last man standing' will be observing the cause of our ultimate demise ...through the lens of a microscope!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Humanity will ultimately destroy itself. The questions are how and when. We are far too warlike, xenophobic and adept at rationalizing great evils.

[Jim Richards]

Should be seeing a run on bio-bunkers, now.

[sand_man]

Ebola ammo:

[onewhippedpuppy]

Good excuse to buy more guns!

[Jim Richards]

Hahahahaha!

[Chocaholic]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Humanity will ultimately destroy itself. The questions are how and when. We are far too warlike, xenophobic and adept at rationalizing great evils.

Uh, not exactly a new thing or unique to our species. In fact, it's how we're wired since the beginning of time. Agonize all you want, it will never change. A matter of how we manage reality.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I don't disagree - I've read "Billions and Billions" too which gets into this quite a bit, but we're at a point now for the first time in human history where we really can wipe out ALL humanity with the weapons we've created. This capability has only been around since 1945 - about 70 years. That's nothing compared to the run of human history. Sooner or later someone WILL rationalize the use of mass-WMDs and all bets will be off.

It wasn't all that long ago that we all lived under the specter of MAD as a policy. It only took one nut (and there are a lot of them, and they gravitate towards positions of power) to put things in motion that would have had catastrophic consequences. We came awfully close in 1962. We got lucky. We won't forever.

Humans are a very violent species by our nature and the veneer of civility that keeps the many millions of years of evolution leading to it in check is a very thin one. It often rips and fails. We have many deaths and wars over stupid and pointless things like political affiliation or what invisible sky-being we believe (or don't) in. I don't hold much hope for humanity's long-term prospects given our history, especially in the context of a world bristling with ever more powerful, far-reaching and deadly weapons. I wonder what the aftermath will look like.

[Chocaholic]

Read Cormick McCarthy's "The Road". That's what it will look like!

[cockerpunk]

lol to the ideal that its a weapon

"remember what the real problem was, we learned to precipitate mass death, before getting over the neurological disorder, of wishing for it"

to the idea that humanity will inevitably kill itself.

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

I think the 'last man standing' will be observing the cause of our ultimate demise ...through the lens of a microscope!

I disagree.
I still expect an alien invasion.

Of course in that X-Files movie, the alien dna arrived in the form of a virus that overtook the victim as a host for the alien to incubate in.

[Nathans_Dad]

Highly doubtful that the U.S. Government would be able to keep all the people in Africa dealing with this quiet, in addition to all the aid workers, government officials and now US doctors and medical staff.

Plus, as the mortality rate of this outbreak is around 60%, that's a pretty lame biowarfare weapon. If you wanted to make a biowarfare agent you'd start with Zaire Ebola which has a mortality rate approaching 90%.

[Pazuzu]

I would rather have 1000 people in Houston infected with Marburg than 1 person infected with Ebola.

We're talking amateur vs. master class here. Marburg is simply not scary when you're comparing to Ebola.

Fortunately, 99.999% of the population has never heard of Marburg, so they can be swayed by a RADIO TALK SHOW HOST when he threatens them with it.


none of this stuff is new people, none of the experience is new, it's not strange, it's not unknown, it's just new to be in the US during a time when the internet allows everyone to be an expert (ehem talking to you CNN).

Redbeard mentioned it, I will too. Want to be truly scared, but at the end, feel more secure that you know the facts? Read The Hotzone and then read Demon in the Freezer. After you can get to sleep again, come back and see how silly this paranoia is. These virii are MUCH SCARIER than you think, but they are MUCH SAFER than you think.

Imagine being on a narrow bridge across a chasm. Is that REALLY REALLY dangerous? Only if you make a mistake. Don't make a mistake and you're 100% safe.

[Tobra]

What if you have stupid monkeys on both ends of your rope bridge swinging it back and forth, or it is just really windy, as chasms frequently are, how dangerous is that?

Originally Posted by Nathans_Dad

Highly doubtful that the U.S. Government would be able to keep all the people in Africa dealing with this quiet, in addition to all the aid workers, government officials and now US doctors and medical staff.

Plus, as the mortality rate of this outbreak is around 60%, that's a pretty lame biowarfare weapon. If you wanted to make a biowarfare agent you'd start with Zaire Ebola which has a mortality rate approaching 90%.

Perhaps there is something about that strain that makes it difficult to weaponize. Higher infection rate and lower mortality rate might be a trade off you are forced to make. Not a virologist, never slept at a holiday inn.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Tobra

What if you have stupid monkeys

That's racist.

[onewhippedpuppy]

The statement lost any factual belief when you stated "I heard it on Sean Hannity".

I sadly believe that if our government wanted to unleash a biological weapon, they have far more effective ones than the current form of Ebola.

[Tobra]

Okay, I will give you the anti primate thing. What if they are smart monkeys that have enough sense not to eat fruit bats, but they have nefarious intentions. Or not monkeys, kangaroos, drunken kangaroos, with rabies. That rope bridge is not looking like such a great idea if there is a rabid, intoxicated marsupial at either end, just sayin'

Sean Hannity has a radio show?

[gsxrken]

I can see the next 9/11 now... except now the 19 suicide "bombers" just take a big snort of Ebola and then visit a few US cities each.
Lovely.