What follows tonight (my time) are some further additions to what has become the saga of whether the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is not a naturally circulating virus, but in fact an engineered or cultured weapon of (very ineffectual) terror?
Not sure if you can guess but I'm in the natural camp.
Last week (was it just last Friday?) I learned of a paper by Professor Raina MacIntyre published in Environment Systems and Decisions.(1) This was thanks to having butted in on a Twitter conversation between Alexandra Phelan, Maia Majumder and Stephen Goldstein. In this paper there was the suggestion that MERS-CoV was deliberately released. This possibility was concluded after applying a risk analysis approach to publicly available data with an aim to "shift the paradigms of thinking about emerging infectious diseases". One of the articles search keywords is Bioterrorism.
A conclusion of s was that "When a new infectious disease emerges, bioterrorism, unless it is caused by an eradicated disease such as smallpox, may not be easily recognized for what it is unless we consider the possibility." Dr McIntyre also wrote a piece for the Conversation (3), multiple pieces for her facebook page (4) and one for the School of Public Health and Community Medicine UNSW.(5) On Twitter, Dr MacIntyre noted...
Probability of no epidemic of MERS-CoV arising from the Hajj is very low, so what's going on? http://t.co/JQMtj3gy9YWe aired our surprise about this, as did some others, and things got misquoted...
� Raina MacIntyre (@RainaMacIntyre) July 24, 2014
MERS paper "not worth discussion" - Canadian expert. http://t.co/LQNiS0R3pF
� Raina MacIntyre (@RainaMacIntyre) July 25, 2014 MERS storm: translation of "not worth discussion" - "ignore and censor"? Interesting scientific approach. https://t.co/f9SsruXzP1
� Raina MacIntyre (@RainaMacIntyre) July 25, 2014 ...and then took a turn away from seeking answers... Had my first experience of cyber-bullying around my MERS paper! Fascinating how Twitter removes polite, professional standards!
� Raina MacIntyre (@RainaMacIntyre) July 25, 2014 Epidemiology expert @maiamajumder MPH, PhD student, agrees "not worth discussion" is spot on, but keeps discussing MERS paper
� Raina MacIntyre (@RainaMacIntyre) July 25, 2014 For a list of all the Tweets (I believe), please check out my Storify timeline.(2)So, to share our concerns, we wrote, with the oversight of an expert Editor, a 900-word piece also for the Conversation.(4) Check out its comments for added detail too.
We also wrote a longer piece for this blog, which will follow in the next post.
References...
- The discrepant epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10669-014-9506-5/fulltext.html#Sec3
- A Storify timline of our exchange about the paper in 1.
https://storify.com/MackayIM/evoking-bioterrorism-as-a-cause-of-sporadic-mers-i - https://theconversation.com/mers-coronavirus-animal-source-or-deliberate-release-29690
- https://www.facebook.com/ProfRainaMacIntyre
- https://www.facebook.com/sphcmunsw/posts/269065343283155
