H5N1 VIRAL-ENGINEERING DANGERS WILL NOT GO AWAY
March 27th, 2013Definitely check out Channel 4’s Utopia. It’s a pretty good documentary series. *grin*
Via: Nature:
Barely two months after a small group of influenza virologists lifted a moratorium on work to make the H5N1 avian flu virus as transmissible between humans as seasonal flu, researchers are at it again. Earlier this month, a Dutch scientist proposed similar experiments with other avian flu viruses, as well as the SARS coronavirus. And a fortnight ago, scientists in Germany and Switzerland reported how they had tweaked canine distemper virus to make it grow in human cells.
The logic behind these kinds of experiments, collectively called gain-of-function (GOF) research, is to identify combinations of mutations that could allow an animal virus to jump to unprepared humans.
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Second, infectious-disease researchers are fond of saying that microbes do not respect barriers. So who makes the rules and provides oversight? Barely a sound has emerged at the international level. The World Health Organization has held essentially closed-door meetings and has failed singularly to widen the debate.
Third, what if these groups generate a highly pathogenic and transmissible virus — which I suspect, within two years, they will? Then what? Should the virus be shared? Should research on this novel virus strain of catastrophic potential be highly restricted?
