Renowned influenza virologist Peter Palese has penned an opinion column for the science journal Nature in which he uses his experience in reconstructing the 1918 pandemic influenza virus strain to question the censoring of H5N1 results by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB): My colleagues and I were at the centre of a similar controversy …
Science magazine is conducting a live chat about research that produced H5N1 influenza strains that are more easily transmissible between ferrets. Among the topics to be addressed will be the benefits and risks of the H5N1 transmissibility studies and whether they should be published in full; and should experiments that could help aspiring bioterrorists be more tightly …
The prominent lead editorial in the New York Times of Sunday, 8 January 2012 is entitled ‘An Engineered Doomsday’. It concerns recent avian influenza H5N1 research, in which scientists in the Netherlands and at the University of Wisconsin found that by passaging the virus in ferrets it could acquire aerosol transmissibility. Let’s determine if the scientific facts …
N.Y. Times: H5N1 ferret research should not have been done Read More »
I will be on NPR’s Science Friday this afternoon (6 January, 2 PM EST) to discuss the H5N1-NSABB story. You can listen live, or download the recording which will be available later. I written three posts (one, two, three) about the ferret H5N1 experiments and why the NSABB should not prevent the publication of these …
Avian H5N1 influenza and biosecurity on Science Friday Read More »
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – Franklin D. Roosevelt Why is there such widespread fear of avian H5N1 influenza virus? Why did Paul Keim, chair of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) say “I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one”. What lead Donald …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Alan Dove Vincent, Alan, and Rich review ten compelling virology stories of 2011. Please help us by taking our listener survey. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV164.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 164 (60 MB .mp3, 99 minutes). Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, …
