Flu Research Controversy Continues

As I first mentioned in this thread, the creation of a flu strain that is highly infectious and with a potentially high mortality rate in order to better understand evolution of virality and ways to combat the disease remains a highly controversial subject. It continues:

news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/...chier-its.html?rss=1
Flu Researcher Ron Fouchier: 'It's a Pity That It Has to Come to This'
by Martin Enserink on 20 January 2012

In a statement posted today on the Web sites of Nature and Science, a group of 39 influenza researchers announced a 2-month moratorium on studies that make the avian influenza strain H5N1 more transmissible between mammals. The moratorium is intended to allow time for an international debate about this type of research, which some people say has the potential to help bioterrorists.

ScienceInsider talked to Ron Fouchier of Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who carried out one of the two studies that triggered the international debate. (His paper is under review at Science.)

www.livescience.com/18044-mutant-bird-fl...er-suspend-work.html
Mutant Bird Flu Researchers Offer to Suspend Work
Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 20 January 2012

Controversy surrounding research on highly transmissible bird flu has prompted scientists, including those who altered bird flu viruses so they could spread between mammals, to call for a 60-day hiatus on the work to allow for discussion.

"We recognize that we and the rest of the scientific community need to clearly explain the benefits of this important research and the measures taken to minimize its possible risks," write about 40 scientists.

"We propose to do so in an international forum in which the scientific community comes together to discuss and debate these issues," they write in a letter released by the journals Science and Nature today, Jan. 20.

news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/...s-want-us.html?rss=1
Prominent Virologists Want U.S. Advisory Board to Take a Second Look at Controversial Flu Papers
by David Malakoff on 20 January 2012

A group of prominent researchers is asking a U.S. government biosecurity advisory board to reconsider its controversial recommendation that two research teams omit key details from papers in press at Science and Nature. The controversy "warrants pause and a rational discussion of the scientific facts," 18 prominent researchers from U.S. universities wrote to the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) on 18 January.

NSABB has said it recommended that the two journals withhold key details from the studies because knowledge of those details, in the wrong hands, could make the H5N1 avian flu strain even more dangerous. The current strain is known to have killed about 60% of the people with documented infections.

The letter writers, however, argue those fears are overblown.