(World Health Organization)Scientists in Canada have used commercially available genetic material to piece together the extinct horsepox virus, a cousin of the smallpox virus that killed as many as a billion human beings before being eradicated. There is nothing dangerous about the synthetic horsepox virus, which is not harmful to humans. In a news release, Tonix said it hopes to use horsepox virus to develop a new vaccine for smallpox that is safer than the one currently available, which can have serious side effects. Evans said he was not trying to prove a point, but he acknowledged that he has long argued that it would be possible to synthesize a pox virus through laboratory techniques. And he said yes it can.” Jahrling added, “If he had done it with smallpox virus, that would be a real [tempest]."

Source: Washington Post July 07, 2017 13:24 UTC