Gee, it seems like just yesterday that I was poking fun of "pills that cure martyrdom" and ethnically targeted plagues. Actually, it was just yesterday. Anyhow, while most of the world is worried about the very real threat of antibiotic resistant TB, Russia is reportedly concerned about the imaginary threat of weapons targeted at their DNA, according to New Scientist:
Russia has banned the shipment of medical specimens abroad, threatening hundreds of patients and complicating drug trials by major companies, the national Kommersant newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Kommersant attributed the ban to fears in the secret service that Russian genetic material could be used abroad to make biochemical weapons targeting Russians. The quality daily cited anonymous sources in the medical community.
The ban, initiated by the Ministry of Health and carried out by the Federal Customs Service, began on 28 May. Shipment beyond Russia's borders of all biological material, including hair and blood, has been blocked.
This got me wondering. My maternal grandparents were from a village that was in Poland, but is now in Belarus, so would I be immune? Or maybe Belarus doesn't count anyhow. Or maybe my paternal grandparents, who were from Hungary, would provide me with immunity. Or maybe all Jews are immune. This is confusing.
It's not clear this really has anything to do with bioterrorism fears. The English-language Moscow Times, reporting on the same subject, indicated that although bioterrorism has been cited, it's not clear that's the real reason behind the ban.
Luckily, at least one Russian scientist (and likely others) recognizes the ban for what it is: lunacy. The New Scientist article quotes Nikolai Yankovsky, head of the Russian Institute of Sciences' General Genetics Institute, "Forbidding the shipment of one's DNA abroad is impossible – I am my DNA."
