EP,

I agree with your comments, but they do not change the fact that a very tiny fraction of the population has been affected by a previously unknown form of disease with NO initial controls and that few ever will be. Mad cow never was and never will be a pandemic. Barry's 90% fatality scenarios are many orders of magnitude beyond any reasonable worst case scenarios for a release of Martian organisms.

The Mad Cow example also indicates how silly it is to spend billions to avoid an extremely small risk from Martian samples when our global economy is far more likely to spread truely deadly diseases like AIDS and Ebola with no controls. From a greatest good for the greatest number standpoint the extra money being spent on MSR would be much better spent fighting known deadly contagious diseases. The fact of the matter is Earthly soil which is transported all over the world unrestricted on airplane tires is far more likely to carry hazardous organisms than any sample from Mars.

Regards,
Mark