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By Category: Research

Experts debate aspects of H5N1 transmission studies

(CIDRAP) In a description of the safety level and conditions at the lab, they wrote that the facility is regularly inspected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using US “select agent” rules for overseas labs. The most recent inspection in …

Georgetown professor applauds decision of researchers to temporarily halt research on H5N1

(Georgetown University Medical Center) A Georgetown University Medical Center professor says the voluntary action taken by two research teams to temporarily halt work involving the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is “laudable.”

Flu Researcher Ron Fouchier: ‘It’s a Pity That It Has to Come to This’

(Science AAAS) How much bioterrorism have we seen in the past? What are the chances that bioterrorists will recreate these viruses? And is it really true that publication of this research would give bioterrorists or rogue nations an advantage? …

Prominent Virologists Want US Advisory Board to Take a Second Look at …

(Science AAAS) A group of prominent researchers is asking a US government biosecurity advisory board to reconsider its controversial recommendation that two research teams omit key details from papers in …

Scientists call for 60-day suspension of mutant flu research

(Nature.com) As controversy rages around the scientists who created mutant strains of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, leading flu researchers have called for a 60-day voluntary pause on such work. The call comes in a statement jointly published today in Nature (R. A. M. Fouchier et al. Nature 481, 443; 2012) and Science. On 20  Read More »