New Wonder Drug Kills Almost Any Virus

[ZippyDSMlee]

And the chances of it making a super virus?

 

[Grand_Arcana]

But, but, I wanted to cure the common cold! Dammit, by the time I graduate, pathology will be a dead field!

And the chances of it making a super virus?

I think we're safe from a zombie apocalypse. In theory anyway.

 

[Kair]

Will our immune systems still get the exercise they need?

 

[iseko]

Great... now they'll have to come up with a NEW type of AIDS to stunt population growth.
Also, the common-cold is caused by strains of streptococci Bacteria, so no-dice :|

common cold is rhino virus.

 

[Ulixes Dimon]

Viruses that use this function to reproduce can never become immune to this treatment as the treatment attacks them on the most basic of level of simply being a virus. In other words, anybody saying "super virus" coming from this is clearly fear mongering. This is pretty much an unmitigated win for humanity here.

Yea,this is to viruses what evaporating all of the water on the planet would be to people... And no it wont make super people that don't need water

 

[Emperor_42]

I wouldn't get to exited if I were you. Penicillin used to be thought of as a "cure for all ills" until the viruses and bacteria became immune to it and now its practically useless. and there's nothing to say that this wont go the same way.

 

[The Lugz]

2. Even if it is released, how long until super-resistant viruses start springing up?

that's actually a misconception, if there is less competition for a specific strand of virus allot more of it's variants will tend to survive ( not just the hard to cure ones )
even under that circumstance, there will always be the deadly strands and the weaker ones

Viruses that use this function to reproduce can never become immune to this treatment as the treatment attacks them on the most basic of level of simply being a virus. In other words, anybody saying "super virus" coming from this is clearly fear mongering. This is pretty much an unmitigated win for humanity here.

Yea,this is to viruses what evaporating all of the water on the planet would be to people... And no it wont make super people that don't need water

well... this is physically putting a barrier between the virus and the cell it's trying to infect, then triggering a chemical meltdown inside the cell
to equate it to humans it's basically a condom made of lava....
i cant imagine having much success at reproducing under those circumstances


what this whole thing makes me wonder is, how long will it be before we can program one of these little cells to generate new tissues, or destroy unwanted tissues to physically alter ourselves in any way we want
y'want giant lungs and wings? go for it!
we have so much potential...

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

This is going to sound really evil, but we need these viruses to kill of the excess population. We're already crowding the planet, disease and calamities help control the population so that we don't reach the carrying capacity, and if that happens, we're doomed.

Maybe we should focus on developing a colony on Mars or the Moon before we cure everything. I'm all for curing cancer and AIDS, but some diseases need to be left alone for the aforementioned reason.

Yeah, no...

Letting people die =/= population control. You get the population under control by discouraging (or, if you're feeling dictatorial, prohibiting) people from having lots and lots of children.

Even if you're morbid enough to think that people should die so the population will be in line, the limited of resources is already taking care of that. There's a finite amount of space, water, soil, and natural resources on Earth, so theoretically, the population will reach a point where it literally can't sustain any more people and the population will go back down. This has already been seen in a lot of places. We don't need diseases to pick up the slack. And personally, I think it's slightly more humane to die of dehydration than to die slowly of cancer.

Oh, and cancer's not a virus, it's a result of cell mutation.

 

[xXAsherahXx]

This is going to sound really evil, but we need these viruses to kill of the excess population. We're already crowding the planet, disease and calamities help control the population so that we don't reach the carrying capacity, and if that happens, we're doomed.

Maybe we should focus on developing a colony on Mars or the Moon before we cure everything. I'm all for curing cancer and AIDS, but some diseases need to be left alone for the aforementioned reason.

Yeah, no...

Letting people die =/= population control. You get the population under control by discouraging (or, if you're feeling dictatorial, prohibiting) people from having lots and lots of children.

Even if you're morbid enough to think that people should die so the population will be in line, the limited of resources is already taking care of that. There's a finite amount of space, water, soil, and natural resources on Earth, so theoretically, the population will reach a point where it literally can't sustain any more people and the population will go back down. This has already been seen in a lot of places. We don't need diseases to pick up the slack. And personally, I think it's slightly more humane to die of dehydration than to die slowly of cancer.

Oh, and cancer's not a virus, it's a result of cell mutation.

You misunderstand, the apex, where the planet cannot sustain anymore people is what we need to avoid. At that point even more people than disease can kill off will die. Humans will drop like flies from starvation etc. Disease and pestilence slow things down. Before we find cures to diseases, we should think about the future as a race. Find a new planet to colonize like Titan or Mars, get our asses over there and set up a viable living space, then work on diseases.

Forgot about cancer not being a virus, but it was only an example of something I support curing, I didn't mean to indicate that I included it in that wonder drug.

Humans shouldn't get any special treatment, we already control deer populations so that they don't reach the limit and die off more than they should be.

 

[Drexlor]

This sound suspiciously like the beginning of You have One Chance. I for one, am scared.

 

[AlphaEcho]

I can imagine this turning into the zombie disease.

 

[XandNobody]

I think this isn't so hot of an idea, cells CAN be formed again I know that, but when you're deliberately KILLING off the cells for a virus, it would get very risky. Like, what ift the virus was in the brain? Brain cells do not come back. So DRACO would be killing brain cells while the virus would be as well.

Alright, I see this type of comment a lot, so don't think this is directed at you in particular. I'm just bored, and your post was the quickest of it's type to quote.

So, to my point. If a cell is infected with a virus, that cell is going to die anyway. That's how viruses work. If a virus gets in a brain cell? Without us doing a darn thing, that cell is going to die. Naturally when a virus kills the cell, the cell releases copies of the virus, that then go and kill even more cells, and make more virus, and cycle of death continues exponentially. What this does, from what I've read mind you, is kill the cell the moment the virus infects it, along with the virus. Even if the virus lives, they have a limited shelf life, that's why they are a life-form programed to reproduce in mass as fast as they possibly can. All this does is speed the already inevitable cell death up, which stops the virus from procreating, at all.

 

[ExileNZ]

Fuck the common cold, I want to see how it does against HIV.

Yeah, that's a tough nut to crack, but what better test?

 

[ExileNZ]

This sound suspiciously like the beginning of You have One Chance. I for one, am scared.

Too-good-to-be-true syndrome, huh?

Also, YHOC was awesome, wasn't it

 

[ExileNZ]

This is going to sound really evil, but we need these viruses to kill of the excess population. We're already crowding the planet, disease and calamities help control the population so that we don't reach the carrying capacity, and if that happens, we're doomed.

Maybe we should focus on developing a colony on Mars or the Moon before we cure everything. I'm all for curing cancer and AIDS, but some diseases need to be left alone for the aforementioned reason.

Yeah, no...

Letting people die =/= population control. You get the population under control by discouraging (or, if you're feeling dictatorial, prohibiting) people from having lots and lots of children.

Even if you're morbid enough to think that people should die so the population will be in line, the limited of resources is already taking care of that. There's a finite amount of space, water, soil, and natural resources on Earth, so theoretically, the population will reach a point where it literally can't sustain any more people and the population will go back down. This has already been seen in a lot of places. We don't need diseases to pick up the slack. And personally, I think it's slightly more humane to die of dehydration than to die slowly of cancer.

Oh, and cancer's not a virus, it's a result of cell mutation.

You misunderstand, the apex, where the planet cannot sustain anymore people is what we need to avoid. At that point even more people than disease can kill off will die. Humans will drop like flies from starvation etc. Disease and pestilence slow things down. Before we find cures to diseases, we should think about the future as a race. Find a new planet to colonize like Titan or Mars, get our asses over there and set up a viable living space, then work on diseases.

Forgot about cancer not being a virus, but it was only an example of something I support curing, I didn't mean to indicate that I included it in that wonder drug.

Humans shouldn't get any special treatment, we already control deer populations so that they don't reach the limit and die off more than they should be.

The main problem here is the speed of death. People can still live a long time with AIDS, cancers and various other diseases, long enough to breed and propagate them. While I may at times be morbid enough to think that deaths keep the population down, diseases are too slow a method - they reduce quality of life and lower averages, sure, but they often require more resources to combat than they may eventually save by killing the host. They also encourage more breeding - look at any country where AIDS is still running rampant, people have ten or more kids in the hope that one or two may survive. Disease is not the answer.

If you really want to keep the population under control, you need a good old-fashioned fascist dictator like Pinochet (not a fan) or Hussein (likewise). Sadly, the new breed of dictator seems just as interested in rape camps and child soldiers as in suppressing local populations, which just means they're breeding more, not less, and monsters and soldiers to boot (that's the human definition of 'monster', not the 'big hairy beast' definition).

But that's probably food for another thread.

Personally, I'm quite hopeful about this new 'wonder drug', but like everything it needs time and testing before we see it in any widespread sort of use. Nothing comes without risk.

EDIT: Just for clarity's sake, this is taking the morbid position that vast numbers of deaths are occasionally necessary for population control. This is not my usual standpoint.

 

[ExileNZ]

2. Even if it is released, how long until super-resistant viruses start springing up?

that's actually a misconception, if there is less competition for a specific strand of virus allot more of it's variants will tend to survive ( not just the hard to cure ones )
even under that circumstance, there will always be the deadly strands and the weaker ones

Viruses that use this function to reproduce can never become immune to this treatment as the treatment attacks them on the most basic of level of simply being a virus. In other words, anybody saying "super virus" coming from this is clearly fear mongering. This is pretty much an unmitigated win for humanity here.

Yea,this is to viruses what evaporating all of the water on the planet would be to people... And no it wont make super people that don't need water

well... this is physically putting a barrier between the virus and the cell it's trying to infect, then triggering a chemical meltdown inside the cell
to equate it to humans it's basically a condom made of lava....
i cant imagine having much success at reproducing under those circumstances


what this whole thing makes me wonder is, how long will it be before we can program one of these little cells to generate new tissues, or destroy unwanted tissues to physically alter ourselves in any way we want
y'want giant lungs and wings? go for it!
we have so much potential...

Ok, see, NOW we're talking zombie-virus territory (see further up the page).
Stay the fuck away from me ;p

 

[The Lugz]

[snip]
Ok, see, NOW we're talking zombie-virus territory (see further up the page).
Stay the fuck away from me ;p

more like x-men mutagen virus?
personally i'd love to give myself the ability to fly even for a few minutes
or to chameleon / copycat would be epic lulness

shame they wont let me.. i'd be too mischievous!

also, i really don't see zombies per-se coming to pass.. it's so incredibly specific as to be impossible, however 'people with weird ass plague' that get off on spreading it could certainly happen.. i'd go with that over zombies

early stage is massively increased libido, then when it's spread people all turn into puss filled abominations and eventually liquefy or something..
this needs to be a game..
why isn't there a game of this ?

 

[Torrasque]

Good to here. Now all we need is a cure for cancer and were golden.

Yeah... <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.307028-Cancer-cured-Wait#12362572>about that...

OP: While this sounds like incredible news, I am interested in how they get DRACO to differentiate between what is good for the body, and what is bad. Besides, I imagine you'd need to have alot of this stuff in you for it to be effective.
Either way:
http://cheezburger.com/Builder/RenderPreview/1a694a55-a22f-4a08-a8a4-f42bb78659e6