Comments on: Despite Safety Worries, Work on Deadly Flu to Be Released

By: Tom Kerwick

Tom Kerwick — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:21:28 +0000

Don — I wholeheartedly agree with a restricted access solution — making such information public is irresponsible, and I cannot fathom how such a decision can be made by such a select few — was any on that panel an expert on the challenges of counter-terrorism? However, another point made, that is unfortunate, is that information gets around, and I believe initially funding such dangerous research as to make a deadly flu virus more contagious is highly unethical, almost criminal. Perhaps the question that needs to be asked is how such research is patrolled, not just the results.

By: Don

Don — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:56:48 +0000

Surely this information can be made available to appropriate people on a highly restricted basis and not just published for all to read, yes?

By: nadadhimmi

nadadhimmi — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:43:02 +0000

The United Nations is a completely incompetent, criminal organization. It's field members rape and murder native peoples worldwide and it's administrators steal both donated and seized money designated to help those peoples. The United Nations was telling people as late as last year that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. This organization should be shut down and it's administrators imprisoned as the criminals they have demonstrated themselves to be.

By: Lina Inverse

Lina Inverse — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:35:53 +0000

Kevin R.C. O'Brien: Agreed; the idea that researchers are unknowingly working with a? strain that's 1 (!) mutation away from being transmissible is terrifying, although I believe it's a legitimate question whether this project's work (the creation of the fully transmissible strain and proving it with ferrets) should be done (or continued) in BL3 vs. BL4 labs (these are levels of isolation that are aimed to prevent pathogens from infecting researchers (BL3) or the general public (BL4)). Problem is, there are very few BL4 facilities in the world, its questionable if this research would have happened if they'd held themselves to that standard. On the other hand, they're taking a great risk; for example, we're pretty sure the H1N1 strain that became predominate starting in 1977 escaped a Soviet laboratory.

By: Otto E. Rössler

Otto E. Rössler — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:25:00 +0000

Medicine is the most advanced invention of humankind.
War is the least advanced invention of humankind.
Allowing the United Nations to be the world police, as tactically elaborated by my friend Edward Fredkin, is the solution to all political problems like this one.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:29:16 +0000

Those who would use the knowledge for nefarious purposes could find the information anyway.

Would you also advocate that we publish nuclear weapons research in the open literature? What these researchers have done is come up with a way to weaponize the H1N1 virus. That is not the type of information I want out in the open. Are you willing to gamble with the lives of millions or, if it is as virulent as they claim, billions of people in the hope that one can develop a vaccine before someone makes and releases the virus? That is not a gamble a sane person should take.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:04:55 +0000

“Absolutely in favor of this being published. Those who would use the knowledge for nefarious purposes could find the information anyway and a scientist’s inability to get their work published would lead to a chilling of the entire research area. If we don’t understand how increased infectivity occurs then we are powerless to stop it.”

Well said. I agree entirely.

It’s better that white-hat researchers have access to the information to help protect against the threat that would inevitably end up in the wrong hands either way.

By: Kevin R.C. O'Brien

Kevin R.C. O'Brien — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:35:38 +0000

Key points: Corky at 18:27 and Stephen at 20:03. That this was discovered at all was the key piece of information, and understanding it is vital to those who plan to defend against both manmade pathogens and natural ones. Every time the flu virus infects a new individual, it mutates in literally thousands of ways. Most of these new mutations are nonviable. More are not as well adapted as the original, which usually remains the dominant type. But some can be better adapted than the original. This high rate of mutation is how flu makes the species jumps it’s so well known for.

The 1918 flu killed more people than the 1914–18 Great War. And it was engineered by Nature alone.

Obscurity is not security here. Information made public enables those scientists who work for pariah states and terrorists, sure, but it also enables those scientists who do not — a greater number, and greater talents. Sure, to release the information is to take a risk. To try to hide it also is to take a risk.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:03:48 +0000

All those in favor of censoring this research should consider this: The scientists working on this are very concerned with threat posed by the greatest terrorist of all — Nature. In case you missed it, the same research groups several weeks ago, noted that several existing strains under study differ by 1(!) to 3 mutations from the highly transmissible form they created. These strains already exist in the wild. We already live in a world one natural mutation away from a pandemic virus. Personally, I’d like more, not fewer, scientists working to understand this monster about to born a natural birth. To put a fine point on it: Gaia doesn’t give a damn about any of you.

By: Mike H.

Mike H. — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:42:55 +0000

The work, on the virus, was done at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the Nederland under the auspices of the National institutes of Health.