Re: [silk] More from Bill Joy

[Eugene Leitl <Eugene.Leitl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, Arsalan Zaidi wrote:

> Countermeasures? The best we can do is try and contain the infection and
> hope for the best. Coming up with a cure in a couple of hours will probably
> be a tad difficult...

Ahem. Catching a disease early, and quarantining the first few initial
cases can make all the difference.

> I'd say! Though it could probably be easy to set up in Britain :-D
> Think about it. Would you want the govt. tracking your every move?

DNA screening is an expensive, high-latency process. Of course you would
not want creation of long-lived sample libraries and DNA fingerprinting.

> 'Screening' you every time you enter or leave an airport... a
> theater... a sports stadium? Would you really want the govt to have

Realtime DNA fingerprinting is very difficult to do. Realtime checking for
known pathogen DNA is much simpler.

> the infrastructure in place to "rapidly order and enforce a stringent
> curfew and quarantine cordoning"? I think not!

Tanstaafl.