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, …
The virologists who carried out the contentious experiments on influenza H5N1 transmission in ferrets have agreed to remove certain details from their manuscript, according to ScienceInsider: Two groups of scientists who carried out highly controversial studies with the avian influenza virus H5N1 have reluctantly agreed to strike certain details from manuscripts describing their work after …
A laboratory in the Netherlands has identified a lethal influenza H5N1 virus strain that is transmitted among ferrets. These findings are under review by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to ensure that they do not constitute a threat to human health. Meanwhile both the popular and scientific press has been calling this …
