"Until this west African epidemic, Ebola was not a public health problem and (was) a really rare disease."
So says Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. This fits hand-in-glove with the general belief that the profit motive is an inefficient and blind method for development. While this flies in the face of the growth of the West in the last centuries, it is a convenient saw for many politicized observers. But is it true? Two infected American missionaries were brought to the U.S. and cured in two weeks, cured of a disease these people are saying that no one has a motive to cure. (Only money has been the motive so far; race is probably next.)
Such a remarkable result simply does not fit with the criticism. Now there is another explanation, of course, scientific curiosity and intellectual challenge aside (factors notoriously omitted in analysis, by the way.) Ever since the early 1970s, the Russians, that symbol of international brotherhood and kindness, has been working on bio-weapons through their extremely well funded Biopreparate arm. Everyone knew this. Their favorite combination, their most fervent hope, was to link Ebola and Smallpox to give their idea of the best combination of infectivity and lethality.
Perhaps that was an adequate "non-financial" motive for support.
So says Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. This fits hand-in-glove with the general belief that the profit motive is an inefficient and blind method for development. While this flies in the face of the growth of the West in the last centuries, it is a convenient saw for many politicized observers. But is it true? Two infected American missionaries were brought to the U.S. and cured in two weeks, cured of a disease these people are saying that no one has a motive to cure. (Only money has been the motive so far; race is probably next.)
Such a remarkable result simply does not fit with the criticism. Now there is another explanation, of course, scientific curiosity and intellectual challenge aside (factors notoriously omitted in analysis, by the way.) Ever since the early 1970s, the Russians, that symbol of international brotherhood and kindness, has been working on bio-weapons through their extremely well funded Biopreparate arm. Everyone knew this. Their favorite combination, their most fervent hope, was to link Ebola and Smallpox to give their idea of the best combination of infectivity and lethality.
Perhaps that was an adequate "non-financial" motive for support.
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