YES, THIS IS SCARY: ‘Anthrax isn’t scary at all compared to this’: Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created in research lab. “A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilisation. The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.”

Years ago, I — and Sen. Bill Frist — talked about the need for a major project for rapid vaccine development to deal with these kinds of threats. So far as I know, nothing was done. This might be a wakeup call. . . .

Some background here. And here’s a column I wrote for TCS Daily. That was 5 years ago. The problem has only gotten worse.