TRIP

Panel Speaks Out on Flu Censorship Controversy

MedPageToday, 2012

intended to be published in Science and Nature , whose goal was to see what genetic changes might make the avian flu – long thought to be a pandemic threat -- transmissible among mammals.
The studies report that it is possible to so that it can be transmitted among ferrets -- an animal used as a model for human flu infection -- in an airborne fashion, much as human-adapted flu passes among people.
The transmissibility, reportedly, comes without loss of the deadly virulence the H5N1 strain shows among birds.
The naturally occurring H5N1 flu is difficult for humans to catch, but it appears highly dangerous when infection happens.
Since 1997, the World Health Organization reports fewer than 600 cases, but about 60% of them resulted in death.
If someone used the findings with "malevolent" intent, could they create "a genetically altered influenza virus capable of causing a pandemic with mortality exceeding that of the 'Spanish flu' epidemic of 1918?"
On the other hand, the board members argued, the bare knowledge that such a virus could exist, either created or naturally evolved, is of great benefit.
"Society can take steps globally to prepare for when nature might generate such a virus spontaneously," they said.
To balance the benefits and risk, they urged that the journals publish just the results, leaving out crucial methodological information, including how the virus was generated and exactly what mutations lead to transmissibility.
Those sorts of details are usually regarded as vital to the progress of science, since they allow other researchers to analyze results critically, either refuting them or using them as the basis for expanded study.
The journals involved have said they will not agree to the recommendations unless there is a process is place to allow legitimate researchers to obtain all of the missing details.