IN a remote bay in Spitsbergen, which falls within the Arctic Circle, lie the bodies of eight young Norwegian miners, frozen solid in the permafrost.

They died in the Spanish influenza epidemic which swept the world just after the First World War.

The epidemic killed around twice as many people as the war itself, a figure of around 20 million.

Why this particular strain of virus was so lethal scientists are desperate to discover in the hope they may come to understand the disease a little better.

For this reason they have been examining samples collected from the victims of the epidemic and stored in underground vaults.

The problem is that over the years the genetic material has deteriorated to such an extent as to render it almost useless.

With the discovery of the deep-frozen bodies in Spitsbergen, scientists are excited about the prospects of digging them up in the hope of finding strains of the virus frozen and preserved intact.

According to a recent news report, what they hope to do is manufacture an influenza vaccine to prevent us getting sick.

Apparently, the descendants of the dead miners have been contacted and given permission for their remains to be disturbed.

However, one thing about the recent news report has been worrying me. The newsreader said that 'experts say there is LITTLE chance' of the deadly virus re-infecting anyone once it has been thawed out.

I'm sorry, but I am not reassured in the least. What on earth do they mean by 'LITTLE chance'?

We are supposed to let these so-called experts go around the world digging up the bodies of people who died from an infectious disease in the hope that it has not died out completely.

Do they take us for complete cretins? Would we accept this sort of activity if a scientist appeared on television to describe his work in nuclear physics, saying there was only a LITTLE chance of blowing us all to Kingdom come?

For a start I want to know how LITTLE is LITTLE. And if it isn't LITTLE enough - a rough estimate would be about one in 5,000 billion, billion - then they should leave the frozen miners where they are.

Resurrecting deadly diseases from the past just to improve influenza vaccine does not seem to me to justify the risk of millions of people dying in a second wave of Spanish Flu.

Let's face it at present 99.99 per cent of people who declare that they are suffering from 'The Flu,' in reality have nothing more than a mild cold. They need their virus to appear more debilitating than it actually is to justify time off work and bouts of self-pitying self-indulgence.

Rather than digging up disease ravaged corpses from 70 years ago, health scientists should have a serious look at the over prescription and misuse of antibiotics which leads to the generation of super bugs which will surely kill us all in the end.

According to the British Medical Association, the fault lies with patients who visit the doctor suffering from a runny nose and demanding vast quantities of anti-biotics.

Do they expect us to believe that doctors are so afraid of their patients that they dispense any drug on demand, even to the detriment of that patient's and the rest of the population's long-term health?

If doctors are prescribing drugs demanded by patients instead of giving them what treatment they need, they should not be allowed to carry on working as doctors. Doctors who are making us all sick by prescribing antibiotics by request should be struck off immediately.

I am sure I am not a unique member of society. When I go to the doctor, I describe my symptoms, subject myself to an examination and take pills when the doctor says I should.

If people are able to diagnose their own illnesses and treatment before they turn up at the surgery, why don't we just dispense with expensive GPs altogether?

However, the subsequently redundant doctors should in no circumstances be allowed to roam around the world digging up bodies to play silly beggars with deadly viruses which should be left where they are.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.