BIOWEAPONS AND A VERY SCARY FUTURE

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In the last one hundred years, over 500 million people have lost their lives due to infectious diseases. Millions of these deaths were due to the deliberate release of toxins, mainly by the Japanese during their invasions of China, during World War II. There have been two international treaties in the year 1925 and 1972, which prohibited biological weapons, but they have mostly lagged in stopping countries from performing offensive weapons research, and large-scale creation of biological weapons. And as human beings’ knowledge of the disease-causing agents, viruses, bacteria and toxins advances, it is rightful to be fearful, that altered pathogens could make up confounding agents for biological warfare.

How We Are Where We Are Today

On June 13, 2012, a sexagenarian Saudi man got admitted to a private hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had a weeklong history of fever, cough, shortness of breath, and expectoration. He was a non-smoker and was not receiving any long-term medications.

This man was assigned to Egyptian virologist Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki. He isolated the patient and extracted a previously unfamiliar coronavirus from his lungs. The virologist’s diagnostics failed to identify the causative agent. He reached out to Ron Fouchier for his advice. Ron Fauchier is a distinguished virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This Coronavirus sample was later attained by Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, directly from Fouchier. The NML is Canada’s only level-4 facility. This lab is equipped to handle the world’s deadliest diseases, which include Ebola, SARS, and Coronavirus, etc.

In the year 2019, the virus sample was reportedly stolen from the Canadian lab, by a group of a scientist of Chinese descent, working at NML. There are conflicting reports of the fate of Chinese scientists. Unconfirmed reports suggest that these scientists had despatched the stolen sample to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Hubei. At this institute experiments and alterations on the virus were conducted. There are many theories about, how the virus escaped from the level-4 lab in Wuhan, however, that is beyond the scope of this composition.

An unpublished paper authored by Indian scientists seems to augment the notion of alterations in the virus by inferring that the virus’s protein sequence included elements of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The authors, for reasons unknown, voluntarily withdrew the paper, but the proposed linkage was caught by many netizens, including websites such as Zero Hedge, which were already claiming that the novel coronavirus was weaponized by Chinese scientists. An article by Gulfaraz Khan in the ‘Virology Journal’ echoed similar views. The article claimed that the virus had mutated. When it was first discovered in Saudi Arabia, it wasn’t getting transmitted from human to human. However, something changed in the virus in the intervening period. Thus, the Wuhan version is labeled as NCoV19 instead of simply NCoV. The latter is not contagious, while the former is spreading rapidly throughout the world as these words are written. In earlier reported coronavirus outbreaks, SARS in China in 2003, and MERS in Saudi Arabia in 2012, the virus was spreading from animals to people. However, mutated NCoV19 is spreading from human to human, making it the deadliest virus in modern times. Let us have a look at the types of Coronavirus.

Human Coronavirus Types

The name Coronaviruses comes from the crown-like spikes on the virus’s surface. Human coronaviruses are not a new finding but were first identified in the mid-60s. There are seven types of coronaviruses that can infect people. Most familiar names are:

  • MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS)
  • SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes a severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS)
  • SARS-CoV-2(the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 or NCoV19)

The Bioweapon Roadmap

Though the world always looks at China with the lens of suspicion, there are over 17 countries, who are suspected of having biological weapons programs: Canada, China, Cuba, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Libya, North Korea, Russia, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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Illustration Courtesy: americanscientist.org

Some of the early examples of the use of bioweapons are:

  • Tatar(Mongols) in the 14th century against the Crimean 
  • British Army in the 18th century against native Americans
  • Germans during WWI against Allied Forces

The bioweapon hysteria caught the United States and Japan during WWII. Early bioweapons like anthrax, smallpox, plague, cholera, and tularemia were simple, but deadly viruses of their time. The rising stars of the world were striving for more. The United States started investing heavily in Biological Weapons during the Presidentship of Reagan, and the trend continued in the Bush Sr and Clinton era. The US vehemently denies the research work and the existence of stockpiles. However, it failed to explain the anthrax attacks on Congressmen, soon after 9/11. The investigations were never brought to any logical conclusion for the very obvious aporia. North Korea and Russia also supposedly have very advanced bioweapons program. Russian President Boris Yeltsin had, in fact, admitted that the Soviet Union had a biological weapons program, in violation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The later regimes continue to deny their existence.

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Types of Diseases and Causative Agents: Courtesy americanscientist.org

China, a late entrant into the bioweapon world, in the 80s, was a quick learner. The intent was clearly seen in their resolve and talks. Gen. Chi Haotian was the Chinese Defense Minister from 1993-2003. In a secret speech, two decades ago, he addressed a high-level Communist Party cadres. He laid down the Chinese plans and requirements of Bioweapons in very clear terms. He started:

  • China has an issue of land and living spaces.
  • Chinese people should go out of the country and conquer lands in which a “New China” could be built by “colonization.
  • The United States stands in China’s way, and it will never allow China to occupy other countries, to build New and larger China.
  • Only large continents/countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, and Africa have vast lands to serve our need for mass colonization. 
  • Nuclear weapons would not solve our problems. The answers to our problems are biological weapons.

Today the United States, Russia, and China have their own ‘Biological Warfare Programs’, which are in a very advanced stage, encompassing research & development, production, and weaponization capabilities.

The Scary Present 

Zhang Shibo is a retired Chinese general and former president of the National Defense University. He states, “Modern biotechnological development is gradually showing strong signs, and characteristic of an offensive capability,” including the possibility that “specific ethnic genetic attacks” could be employed. The PLA is proposing a military application for biology and pushing for its intersections with other disciplines, including brain science, supercomputing, and artificial intelligence. A similar feat has already been achieved by a team of scientists, at Tufts University, in the US. They have created xenobot, tiny robots made from frog skin and heart cells that can walk, work together and heal themselves.

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If these breakthroughs fall in the hands of rogue nations or terrorists, then we are starting at a catastrophe. It is no wonder, that Professor Charles Lieber of Harvard University was arrested by the FBI on 28 Jan 2020. Lieber faces charges of trading knowledge with other countries for money and lying about it. In a very strange turn of events, Frank Plummer of National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg, Canada, mysteriously died in suspicious circumstances in Kenya, on 4th Feb 2020. He was at the forefront of the research on Saudi SARS Coronavirus and was working on Coronavirus (HIV) vaccine.

Black Biology – A War of Ethics

Today, China stands neck to neck with the western world in terms of biotechnology. In 2016, an AMMS(Academy of Military Medical Sciences, China) doctoral researcher published a paper, “Research on the Evaluation of Human Performance Enhancement Technology,” which illustrated CRISPR-Cas(CRISPR-Cas is a genome-editing tool) as one of three primary technologies that might boost troops’ combat efficacy. The research looked at the potency of the drug ‘Modafinil’, which has applications in cognitive enhancement. ‘Cognitive Enhancement’ is Hacking the Brain and increasing its efficacy. He acknowledged that the CRISPR-Cas as a “military deterrence technology has great potential. In November 2018, Chinese scientist ‘He Jiankui’ of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, declared that he used the gene-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9 to create genetically modified human babies. He performed what he calls gene surgery to modify their genetics. Previously, CRISPR-Cas9 had never been used in altering the genome of embryos. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is an astronomical feat in the field of life sciences, as well as, a serious threat to world security in the wrong hands. The invention of CRISPR has made gene editing far easier. It’s deliberate or unintentional misuse might lead to far-reaching economic and national security implications. Experts are concerned that CRISPR could be used to make genetically engineered killer mosquitos, plagues that target and wipeout specific crops, and possibly even viruses that can snip people’s DNA.

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Three-dimensional enzyme DNA strands editing: Courtesy sciencealert.com

Another likelihood of using CRISPR is, to modify diseases, in a way that they only target certain genes. For example, it might be possible that CRISPR can be designed to alter diseases to seek people out with certain genetics, like those with Down syndrome or autism. Further research might make it possible to use CRISPR to modify diseases to target a whole race by directing the disease on a certain genetic trait. In this way, any rouge nation could, hypothetically, build a disease that targets the Indians, and release it without worrying about it infecting its own people. This screams of a science-fiction movie plot, but it is no longer unimaginable. Using a gene-editing process a terrorist in Pakistan or a biologist in North Korea can fashion a microbe that mimics the transmissibility and lethality of smallpox, or any such deadly diseases, with technology ordered online for less than $200.

Future Tense

The low cost and easy access to genomic technologies make it feasible for such weapons to be deployed by almost any attacker. Even small alterations are sufficient to create hazardous effects: A single mutation was all it took to modify Zika from a moderately routine infection to a brain-damaging infection in infants. The reality is, that there would be no way of realizing, who initiated such an attack. Perpetrators could even manufacture, and discharge several deadly pathogens at the same time, hindering our ability to respond with widespread confusion.

Today the world is at crossroads. On the one hand, modern biology is so promising and curative, on the other it just may not be worth it. Humankind knows that the First World War was chemical; and the Second World War was nuclear. Is it ready for the Third World War, which in all likelihood would be – ‘Biological’?

This article was originally published on: insightful.co.in

References:

1. Biowarfare and Terrorism – Francis A. Boyel2. Bioweapon: New Beginnings – J.K. Bowden 3. CNN.com 4. Sciencemag.org 5. NationalPost.com 6. Mirror.co.uk 7. NPR.org 8. dezeen.com 9. Wikipedia 10. carnegieendowment.org 11. ukrinform.net 12. americanscientist.org 

Published by sandyinsights

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83 thoughts on “BIOWEAPONS AND A VERY SCARY FUTURE”

  1. I invited this gentleman to post this piece here because it and he are incredibly awesome.

    ‘Ettes be easy on him although something tells me he knows his way around a haram – so who knows?

    sandyinsights: Welcome aboard, good sir!

    Liked by 3 people

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  2. Since I am not a biochemist or biotechnology expert, I worked almost over a month to get to the depths of this topic. NBC is not new to me or a person of my background, but concepts have changed in the past couple of decades. Eventually, I had a 10,000-word dissertation, which I had to compress into 1800 words to keep it meaningful and readable.

    Liked by 4 people

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  3. Calling all ‘Ettes and all followers to read this important and groundbreaking work.

    I know the ‘Ettes are going to be all over this like white on rice and need no encouragement; but dear followers & lurkers, please drop a comment of some sort or the other here too por favor.

    Liked by 3 people

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  4. Yes, welcome! Wow, this article is very impressive and very scary. Certain types of technology are just not worth it, but there is no way to stop every mad scientist. All we can do is pray.

    Liked by 2 people

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    2. Science always was a double-edged sword. This gene-editing technology could eradicate the world, of many dangerous diseases. However, there is always a downside. Every capable country is suspicious of others and doing this dual research. The treaties and conventions are toothless when it comes to such usage.

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  6. Thank you, I think! Before reading this, I was merely highly concerned; now I am terrified. This article only underscores the idiocy of our Congressional bill passed yesterday that continues to fund things like the NEA and PBS, etc. when every dime needs to be earmarked for developing a vaccine. (I can live without Downton Abbey re-runs for a while.)

    P.S. I forgot to add the $25 million that was set aside for the Kennedy Center which I have been to several times for the ballet. It is old, decrepit and nobody does anything in D.C. but attend political dinner parties anyway. Just as an aside, I had the pleasure of attending A Midsummer’s Night Dream sitting directly behind Justice Breyer. Now is that fair? 🙂

    The city is beautiful but there ain’t no culture aside from the Smithsonians! Can we pls spend our (my) money to find a cure?!

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    1. Liz, it’s the usual “Easter egg hunt” that we see with these omnibus bills – these critters – on both sides of the aisle, but more on one, mostly, function that way. Where’s William Proxmiere’s “Golden Fleece” award when we need it? Incidentally, shouldn’t Pelosi, Schumer be quarantined? They’re in the demographic, right?

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    2. This is the first time I am so disappointed with the American administration. They saw it coming but they just froze, either in their arrogance or ill-preparedness. NCoV19 is the mutated one, and spreading from human to human, making itself easily communicable, all over the world. This also brings us to a question, of what many people are asking on my blog: ”why did the virus spread to only two regions of China, despite delays and denials, whereas it has spread to the remotest corners of the world, without discrimination”. I have no answer to that.

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      1. I may have an answer here but it is only a theory. Asians are devoted tourists, particularly the Japanese and Chinese. Italy is a favorite destination and I no longer enjoy going there because of the huge groups of tourists that descend upon small, quaint cities such as Florence like locusts and literally clean out stores. (I won’t even ask where all this wealth is coming from.)

        Guess I’m bitter because I so looked forward to going to my Mecca- the Prada store in Milan- and by the time I got there one morning at 11:00 a.m. there was nothing left to buy! I had been preceded by a horde of Chinese tourists.

        Please do not be totally disenfranchised with the American administration because we have a “can do” president but a completely malfunctioning and obstructive Congress that unfortunately holds the purse strings. The American voter can fix this but many seem to blithely continue to watch CNN and believe everything they are told. I blame everything on the root of the problem- the low information voters who put these people into office in the first place.

        BTW, if you don’t mind sharing personal info, where do you live (city), Sandomina?

        Liked by 3 people

      2. You know it very well, where the Chinese are getting their wealth from, America. If you read some of my earlier articles on insightful.co.in, you would understand it better. When I started writing, within no time I started getting calls from Chinese as well as cyber attacks from their hackers. You are talking about Europe, it is more true for the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Many of your institutions and universities are completely under Confucius Institutes. I dread that day when the world would be speaking Mandarin.

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      3. The CCP is getting rich off this country but they surely aren’t ‘spreading the wealth.’ Thus, the confusion about tourists in Milan buying $600 dollar shoes.

        I understand the Russian oligarchy because Putin needs friends but the CCP doesn’t care to engage in any kind of mutual compatibility with anybody. They want it all. Trump knows this and this is why he’s playing hardball.

        I believe the virus was no accident. It was an “unknown” problem as far back as November.

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      4. People are asking various questions:
        – Why the spread of the epidemic was limited in such a vast country like China, despite delays and denials?
        – Why it has spread to remotest corners of the world?
        – Chinese factories and markets are up and running, but the world over everything is shut.
        – Chinese stock markets have hardly been affected but world markets have tanked.
        There are questions and questions. Would China answer these questions? No, in fact, they have done exactly the opposite. They have hired the best western scribes and started a blitzkrieg of propaganda in the western media.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. – Why it has spread to remotest corners of the world?
        – Chinese factories and markets are up and running, but the world over everything is shut.
        – Chinese stock markets have hardly been affected but world markets have tanked.

        Good questions.

        1. I think I gave a pretty astute answer to that question previously.
        2. Who says? The Chinese need foreign markets to survive because they still haven’t developed a middle or even upper class consumer market in their own country. They need us. (The tourists buying Prada shoes probably didn’t eat for a month.)
        3. The Chinese stock market has been on a week long losing streak and tomorrow I predict all hell will break lose. I’m a stock broker and I cashed out weeks ago to protect my assets. I do day trading now on two stocks and am comfortable making $2k a day. It’s interesting to note that this crisis brings some new opportunities with new companies and I’m adaptable to fluctuation. I understand that I can’t make a trade and walk away for a few hours. I am glued to the “refresh” button from 9:30 to 4.

        No big deal. I like it.

        Liked by 2 people

      8. I would never put other people through the risk I deal with everyday. It would only increase my own stress and my primary care physician would probably hospitalize me!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. The problem is Judy, that now it is out in open. Every country is suspicious of others and doing dual research with impunity. I don’t want to sound like an alarmist. I did the research for this article for over one month and I know, they won’t stop. This is not the first time and this is not the last time humanity would suffer at the hands of these sycophants.

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      1. Frank Plummer was a scientist par excellence. He was an alcoholic but had recovered from it. He was hale and hearty and in Africa to attend a conference. Local newspapers are calling it ‘under suspicious circumstances’ because I suppose they could not pinpoint the cause of his death. These are substances existing(developed once again in labs) that cause death and make it look natural.

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  9. In a very strange turn of events, Frank Plummer of National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg, Canada, mysteriously died in suspicious circumstances in Kenya, on 4th Feb 2020. He was at the forefront of the research on Saudi SARS Coronavirus and was working on Coronavirus (HIV) vaccine.

    Can you tell us a bit about those suspicious circumstances, please?

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    1. Frank Plummer was a scientist par excellence. He was an alcoholic but had recovered from it. He was hale and hearty and in Africa to attend a conference. Local newspapers are calling it ‘under suspicious circumstances’ because I suppose they could not pinpoint the cause of his death. These are substances existing(developed once again in labs) that cause death and make it look natural.

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      1. Thank you, good sir.

        The research (‘deep dive’) you have done on this topic is amazing. Does this connect with your profession? What drove you to do all of this work?

        Liked by 2 people

      2. No, it is nowhere near my profession(though I have been trained to think like a strategist). Just the passion to dig out the controversial issues and write about them.

        Liked by 2 people

  10. There are many theories about, how the virus escaped from the level-4 lab in Wuhan, however, that is beyond the scope of this composition.

    Please share what your thinking is at this time on this and please come back to drop an OP here if you decide to take this question head-on.

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    1. Following have been analyzed by various agencies:
      – Coronavirus infected animals were sold to the Wuhan wet market by the greedy staff/scientist to make a quick buck.
      – Accidental escape. It happens from time to time due to negligence or an accident. VECTOR lab in Siberia, Russia, had one such accident in 2019. Which was not made public due to it’s remote location.
      – An experiment by Chinese authorities to get rid of it’s aging population.
      – A bioweapon to being down other economies, so as to prop up the shaky Chinese economy.
      And various other such theories. But these are all theories and there is nothing substantial to prove them legitimate.

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      1. Thanks, once again. I had not heard of the VECTOR lab incident in Russia or the idea that this may have been a ChiCom experiment to rid itself of the (unproductive) elderly.

        I doubt we will ever know the truth.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. What is your best guess at this time?

        There is also a theory the ChiComs wanted to use this on their Uighur Muslims, but that does not ‘compute’ for me.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Agreed. It almost feels like the Uighur angle is China propaganda.
        My feeling is this was released to stop Trump and America’s resurgence.

        It may have been accidentally released but once it was out there anyway, the ChiComs decided to make the most of a bad situation by bringing the western (sorry) economy to a screeching halt.

        Liked by 2 people

  11. The forbidden rice in the form of powder may be more than just an aphrodisiac. I am conducting scientific (yes JaC, we do have scientists [at least one anyway] on Unleashed) research to prove the efficacy of Thai Hom Nin Black Rice Powder as these words are being written.*

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  13. I think I mean my comment above the one about L2’s incels. This GMF. They are now incelled and locked up at the same time with their brides. Oh the poetic justice is not lost on me.

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    1. Off-topic but I know you don’t care:

      My least favorite words/ expressions:

      1.”My bride/ the wife.” Brides ceased to become one the day they were married and puh-leeze drop the damn Neanderthal “the wife.” You and Archie Bunker both.
      2. “We’re pregnant.” Who is pregnant? The husband or the wife?

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Agreed Liz. I wrote bride in my comment because that is what the L2 incels worshippingly call their sweethearts. Is it just me or are each and every one of those guys more in love with their wives today than they were on the day they got married?

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      3. Do we know anything about any of them other than the well-established fact that each and every one of them is the smartest guy in the room? It has dawned on me that we don’t know anything about them because other than their on-line personae, they have no life.

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      4. No. It’s a different site; they talk about science a lot in addition to politics. Your site discusses politics and war quite a bit but we sprinkle in a lot of entertaining stories; I feel like I can picture everybody here from both the inside and out. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

    1. The handshake was intended to detect weapons up one’s voluminous sleeves, wasn’t it? the Thai-wai is intended as a mutual blessing, right?….Much preferred.

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      1. I think the no touching aspect of the wai is not an accident. Do you know where that hand has been? Ladies of the patriarchy do not normally shake other women’s hands when they meet, do they?

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      3. If I take up the practice, then I will seem even more spiritual and avant garde – oui?

        Never mind, one would need to be razor thin and dressed in monks robes to pull that off.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I may have to disagree a bit here. Up until recently I enjoyed the human contact of a handshake, a hug or a kiss on the cheek. It’s felt odd to me to meet people now with a wave!

      The best Anglo custom was in the 18th and 19th centuries when a gentleman would kiss the hand of a lady. 🙂

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      5. Not really. The yoga was only because of a lawful order given to me by my physical therapist. She was an officer in the US Navy and attractive.

        Liked by 1 person

  15. Why am I remembering Michael Crichton’s “The Andromeda Strain” (Before Hollywood got hold of it.) and “Coma”, right now? Truly enlightening – and frightening post, Sando…Where do we go from here? Does biohazard gear become chic because we need it routinely? Would welcome a response when you can….

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      1. Point taken…Crichton merely came to mind as I read your piece; I agree wholeheartedly re: the current focus of larger entities than you or me.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. “Lol 🙂 Sometimes, Nanda, you are a silly rabbit 🙂”

      Actually, JaC, I didn’t make the biohazard gear remark in jest…We have a tendency to make the necessary attractive; anti-embolic ‘compression’ stockings now come in colors and patterns, for instance.

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