TED Talks: Viral Pandemics Nathan Wolfe

HIV has reached pandemic status in the human race, and Nathan Wolfe is trying to prevent it from happening with other viruses.

The HIV virus was transferred into the human population by bushmeat hunters from the primates that they eat. Nathan Wolfe is trying to track HIV and other new viruses that can easily become pandemics by having the bushmeat hunters take blood samples from their kills and take atleast a basic safety course on prevention of zoonotic viruses. Wolfe and his team have had to overcome many diffuclties pertaining to this direction. He is now trying to spread this objective all over the world so we can prevent the decimation of species.

I think that Wolfe is fantastic and should continue his work. He is working towards saving billions of species, not just the human race. He's trying to save all kinds, and I honor him for that.

Chimp's fate ignites debate

Everyone has heard about animal testing. Whether they have participated in being for or against it, or from the news, it’s reached them. This year, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico decided to send 186 chimps to a Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas. A lot of controversy has been brought up over this matter. All of the chimpanzees have been used for medical testing for years. People argue that they have the right to be sent to a sanctuary and not be tested on more. On the other hand, the San Antonio facility is very similar to their current home, and the testing would be just drawing blood samples and taking a bit of liver with teeny tiny needles. The article ends with a quote from Ajit Varki, a biochemist at the University of California in San Diego. He says, “We should be able to with chimps what we do with humans.”

I don’t agree with animal testing. I never have, and I never will. In what Mr. Varki says at the end of the article bothers me. If you look what humans have done to others over our entire history, it’s not pretty. What I interpret from Varki’s statement is that it’s okay to burn chimps alive or slice their faces up; that it’s okay to poison them and remove their limbs while they are still conscious and breathing. It disgusts me, what humans have the ability to do. Worse, we are trying to make it okay to do on a species that is so similar to ours and haven’t done anything to us. I don’t agree with the governor of New Mexico, and I hope that we can find a better solution.