Editor’s Note: In May 2011, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Pentagon: Cyber Attacks Can Count as Acts of War.” The article began, “The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.”
The French Health Ministry has reported that a 65-year-old man has died from the novel coronavirus now called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
The death is the 23rd out of 44 confirmed cases in the world. The latest victim had traveled to Dubai where doctors believe he contracted the virus.
A patient in the same room as the latest victim has contracted the virus showing another example of human-to-human transmission.
“The greatest global concern, however, is about the potential for this new virus to spread,” the World Health Organization said in a statement. “This is partly because the virus has already caused severe disease in multiple countries, although in small numbers, and has persisted in the [Middle East] region since 2012. Of most concern, however, is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person.”
“It is very rare and apart from the unusual circumstances of very close containment with already hospitalised persons, it does not seem to transfer among people,” Professor Ian Jones of the University of Reading told the BBC. “As a result, the overall risk remains very low and the most pressing need is to identify where the virus is coming from so that these occasional infections can be prevented.”
