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Re:Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada by Teever on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:09PM (#27055023)
> I don't see any justification for why humanity in 2021 is courting prion disaster to a greater degree than it was in 2000 BC.

While the kinds of people who would fly planes into buildings, release nerve toxins in subway stations or club entire villages of outsiders to death have always existed the ability to research and manufacture prions did not exist in 2000BC.

That combination of desire to destroy the world and the legitimate ability to do it with rapidly more accessible biotechnology is a disconcerting reality that we need to account for when discussing theses things.

Imagine a religious extremists organization mass producing prions and placing them in key parts of food supply chain. We probably wouldn't have a clue until it was too late.

Re:Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada by littlestymaar on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:20PM (#27055169)
Biotech as a whole and its misuse by fanatics (or public servants in states with dubious moral …) is a massive concern for the 21th century, but I don't really think prions deserve a special place in this list. There's way too much scary things in here (gene drive, artificial viruses, intentional smallpox spreading, etc.)
Re:Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada by Teever on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @05:41PM (#27056166)
That may be the case but it's a different issue than "Why are prions more of a threat to humanity than they were 4k years ago?"

With that said I sort of disagree with you. Prions are particularly attractive to a hypothetical bioterrorist due to the difficulty in detecting them, their durability and also the delay on effects. As I said above, once you know you have a problem it will be too late.

Keep in mind these are just the prions that nature has produced. It is quite possible that humans are able to modify existing threatening prions or develop whole new classes of threatening prions that haven't developed in nature.

Overall I think the most effective strike from a bioterrorist won't come from a single attack vector but a well timed combination of vectors. We've seen how something as minor as COVID has taken all of our attention and resources, now imagine if a terrorist timed something like COVID with a follow up strike like prions.

Re:Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada by littlestymaar on Thursday May 06, 2021 @05:02AM (#27060727)
> hypothetical bioterrorist due to the difficulty in detecting them, their durability and also the delay on effects.

Terrorism is about fear, and that comes with spectacular actions even if it kills relatively few people, not with stealthy poisoning of big population.

You're not gonna have anything remotely as impactful as 9/11 with prions, even if you killed a million people in the long run.

Is it a good weapon for a nation state going at war, or committing a genocide. Definitely yes! But it sucks for terrorism.