Here’s a concept you’ve probably never heard of: “viral sovereignty.” This extremely dangerous idea comes to us courtesy of Indonesia’s minister of health, Siti Fadilah Supari, who asserts that deadly viruses are the sovereign property of individual nations — even though they cross borders and could pose a pandemic threat to all the peoples of the world
Richard Holbrooke and Laurie Garrett – ‘Sovereignty’ That Risks Global Health – washingtonpost.com
Jamais Cascio has some great explication of why this is important over on Open the Future. I wonder if we’d send in commandos to extract blood from the latest victims of a novel avian flu strain. That’d be a great lead character for a sci-fi novel. Half-commando, half-biologist, all grizzled good looks.
