To:               virology@net.bio.net
From:             Denni Schnapp 
Subject:          re ebola and colobus
Date sent:        5 Jun 1995 11:58:47 +0100


I remember Doug Yanega posting a while ago with the mesage that red colobus
monkey is a possible reservoir for ebola since it is preyed upon by chimps
which are in turn hunted by humans in Zaire- certainly a valuable theory
that deserves further investigation. But I also recall he put his idea for-
ward somewhat aggressively as if he was the only person who could see the
"truth" and the scientists who worked on possible reservoirs for ebola
just plainly could'nt figure out where to look. The aggressive streak
against scientists involved with research on ebola reservoirs was then
carried on in the primate newsgroup, to the tune of forget about virolo-
gists (and ecologists, I presume) atempting to "figure out" what is plain-
ly obvious to everyone. To my knowledge it has not yet been verified that
colobus monkeys can even act as carriers of the virus, yet the speculation
as to their being *the* reservoir for ebola found its way to the CBS news.
This is not science this is random and irresponsible speculation. Doug
should restrict his (doubtlessly valuable) contributions to the relevant
scientific newsgroups until such time they have been veryfied and keep
his aggressive tone out of his postings.

Just an annoyed bystander,



Denni (ds4@st-and.ac.uk)