[meteorite-list] Alien Link To SARS Debunked

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:01 2004
Message-ID: <200307091734.KAA03976_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6729061%255E911,00.html

Alien link to SARS debunked
By JUDY SKATSSOON
The Advertiser (Australia)
July 10, 2003

SUGGESTIONS that SARS came from outer space were unbelievably implausible, one of
the world's leading authorities on the virus said yesterday.

A letter published in The Lancet medical journal earlier this year captured the public
imagination by suggesting it may have hitchhiked a ride to Earth on a comet or meteor.

Genome Institute of Singapore executive director Dr Edison Liu, a speaker at the
International Genetics Conference in Melbourne, however, yesterday debunked the theory
as "scientific imagination bordering on fantasy".

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome clearly was a terrestrial, or Earth-based virus, he said,
although genetic analysis showed it did not resemble any human strains.

Dr Liu said containment, quarantine and the Internet helped conquer SARS, which otherwise
would have turned into a disaster of almost unprecedented scale. He said, however, much
about SARS remained a mystery, including its origins.

The current belief was that SARS had species-jumped from an animal to humans.

Dr Liu said the virus was capable of infecting multiple species.
Received on Wed 09 Jul 2003 01:34:00 PM PDT


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