---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jonathan Latham <[email protected]> Date: Tue, May 5, 2020 at 8:29 PM Subject: The Long History of Accidental Laboratory Releases of Potential Pandemic Pathogens Is Being Ignored In the COVID-19 Media Coverage To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Dear Friends and Colleagues Published today (Tues May 5th, 2020) on *Independent Science News*: *The Long History of Accidental Laboratory Releases of Potential Pandemic Pathogens Is Being Ignored In the COVID-19 Media Coverage* by Sam Husseini https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/the-long-history-of-accidental... *Synopsis*: Most of the media is treating the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic might have been the result of a lab escape as a wild and reckless accusation. Yet there is a long and extensive history of Potential Pandemic Pathogens (PPPs) escaping from labs all over the world. H1NI flu, for example, is now considered to have been a lab escape as was the UK’s Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) virus outbreak of 2007. Most of these escape events and their consequences are virtually unknown outside of their specialist fields, however. This article provides an overview. The author is an independent journalist. Please share this article if you know someone who will find it useful. Best wishes Jonathan Jonathan Latham, PhD Executive Director The Bioscience Resource Project, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA Websites: www.independentsciencenews.org www.poisonpapers.org www.bioscienceresource.org Tel: 1-607-319-0279 Twitter and Facebook: @Biosrp Please sign on to our mailing list: https://www.independentsciencenews.org/subscribe/ Notice: Please forgive any delays and slow news. I am writing a book about genetics and genetic determinism. It is provisionally titled: *The Myth of The Master Molecule: DNA and the Social Order* The contention of the book is that the key organising principle of Western thought is the seemingly innocuous and seemingly simple idea that our personal qualities are biologically inherited. That is, our character derives from our ancestors rather than being an always-adapting product of our own experiences, decisions, and education. The book makes the case, first, that genetic determinism is a scientific fallacy since organisms are self-organised systems and therefore not genetically determined. Second, the explanation for the myth, which originated in Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago, is its utility. Genetic determinism allows the development of political systems based on genetic privilege. The result was the dismantling of ancient cultures based on inclusive and egalitarian social patterns and their transformation into rigid structures of authoritarian domination based on separation and division: into families, classes, races, nations, sexes (i.e. patriarchy), and species. The final proposition of the book is that propagating the myth was the chief aim of Zoroastrianism and all the Abrahamic religions. Since the 1850s, this role has been appropriated by science. By recognizing how the founding myth of Western civilization is being re-told in the language of science we can start to dismantle and replace it with a more humane and scientific understanding of the world. Jonathan Latham, PhD Executive Director The Bioscience Resource Project, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA Websites: www.independentsciencenews.org www.poisonpapers.org www.bioscienceresource.org Tel: 1-607-319-0279 Twitter and Facebook: @Biosrp Please sign on to our mailing list: https://www.independentsciencenews.org/subscribe/ Notice: Please forgive any delays and slow news. I am writing a book about genetics and genetic determinism. It is provisionally titled: *The Myth of The Master Molecule: DNA and the Social Order* The contention of the book is that the key organising principle of Western thought is the seemingly innocuous and seemingly simple idea that our personal qualities are biologically inherited. That is, our character derives from our ancestors rather than being an always-adapting product of our own experiences, decisions, and education. The book makes the case, first, that genetic determinism is a scientific fallacy since organisms are self-organised systems and therefore not genetically determined. Second, the explanation for the myth, which originated in Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago, is its utility. Genetic determinism allows the development of political systems based on genetic privilege. The result was the dismantling of ancient cultures based on inclusive and egalitarian social patterns and their transformation into rigid structures of authoritarian domination based on separation and division: into families, classes, races, nations, sexes (i.e. patriarchy), and species. The final proposition of the book is that propagating the myth was the chief aim of Zoroastrianism and all the Abrahamic religions. Since the 1850s, this role has been appropriated by science. By recognizing how the founding myth of Western civilization is being re-told in the language of science we can start to dismantle and replace it with a more humane and scientific understanding of the world. _______________________________________________ BSR-project-elist1 mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/bsr-project-elist1 To unsubscribe, email [email protected] -- P2P Foundation: http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net <http://p2pfoundation.net> - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: ; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens Curation of news on p2p/commons developments: https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/