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By Category: Biosafety

Court Rejects Appeal of Livermore Biolab Decision

(Global Security Newswire) The U.S. Energy Department has adequately assessed potential extremist threats to a new biological defense laboratory at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, three federal judges determined on Tuesday in a unanimous decision to allow the site to remain open. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006 froze work Read More »

February 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Bioterrorism, and Policy & Initiatives
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Doomsday flu decision time: The story so far

(New Scientist) Last year, two flu research groups created what could be extremely dangerous viruses through their research into bird flu. Both studies will be censored when they are published, and all similar work has been put on hold – unprecedented actions in biomedical research. Ahead of a World Health Organization meeting to plot a Read More »

February 9, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Scientists call for curbs on own research on deadly bird flu virus

(The Guardian) Professor Osterholm said he considered the new virus a worse threat than the return of smallpox. “I wouldn’t like to see smallpox get out of the lab, but if it did it wouldn’t overly concern me,” Osterholm said. “We could contain it. The same thing is true with Sars. But influenza would scare Read More »

February 6, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Canada says any research on lab-made bird flu must be done in top biosecurity

(Global Winnipeg) TORONTO – The Public Health Agency says any research on enhanced H5N1 bird flu viruses in Canada must be done in laboratories with the top level of biosecurity. The agency says any Canadian researchers who would want to work with the viruses in this …

February 6, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, and Research
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Emotion runs high at H5N1 debate

(Nature.com) Scientific debates erupted about the mortality rate of H5N1, generally known only to transmit from birds to humans. Peter Palese, a virologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York says that underestimates of the prevalence in the general population have led to an exaggeration as to how deadly H5N1 is.