Bird Flu Research - Dangerous Information on a Deadly Virus
A panel at the Forum at Harvard School of Public Health
- Welcome to Reuters' coverage of a Harvard panel on the thorny security issues involved with researching the birdflu virus. The panel was hosted by Harvard School of Public Health and moderated by Sharon Begley, Senior U.S. Health & Science Correspondent at Reuters. For a replay, go to www.hsph.harvard.edu
- Birdflu experts are meeting at the World Health Organization this week to decide how far scientists should go in creating lethal mutant viruses in the name of research. Here is our preview of the meeting: reut.rs
- Reuters correspondents Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen take an in-depth look at the challenges laboratories face in containing deadly microbes they are researching. www.reuters.com
- Today's panelists are: David Franz, Former Commander, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases; Jeanne Guillemin, Senior Advisor, MIT Security Studies Program; Marc Lipsitch, Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and Director, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics; Barry Bloom, Former Dean, Harvard School of Public Health and Professor, Dept. of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
- Lipsitch: 600 cases of human-human transmission of H5N1 strain. Scary part: 60% fatal. #fluforum
- Bloom: An extreme position of some scientists is all H5N1 research should be censored b/c too dangerous #fluforum
- Bloom: Another view is you can't keep science research closed for very long so might as well be open about it #fluforum
- Bloom: Main argument for research -- we really don't understand flu so we need to research it #fluforum
- Guillemin: Post-anthrax, SARS was defining event in bioterrorism defense
- Franz: This information/research will become available eventually #fluforum
- Franz: This H5N1 strain is 1st virus that made me "stand up and take notice". Why? May be communicable and fatal #fluforum
- Franz: Not confident we could control an outbreak of a deadlier bird flu virus if it escaped the lab
- Franz: Labs around the world working on H5N1 strain do not all meet same standards #fluforum
- Tweeting about a panel at Harvard School of Public Health on the risks of bird flu research, see it here live.reuters.com
- Early take on birdflu panel: Researchers not at all playing down risks of this strain. "Lethal" used a bunch #fluforum
- Harvard's Lipsitch: Most important to me is to contain the virus itself. It should not be in hundreds of labs around the world #fluforum
- Lipsitch: This strain should not be in hundreds of labs around the world. "This strain is not something we want to mess with" #fluforum
- Reuters senior health writer Sharon Begley asks whether we should even conduct research on such risky pathogens
- Franz: Security in pharmaceutical industry probably better than anywhere in government #fluforum #pharma
- Bloom: Most important thing the scientific community can do is be open and transparent #fluforum
- Former US Army cmdr David Franz says scientific community needs to ask that question in advance for future work; in the case of bird flu studies it's too late
- #fluforum panelists OK with redacting technical details of research but stress openness and say info will otherwise get out
- Harvard's Barry Bloom: Working in a spacesuit may make lab researchers more prone to accidents - containment is about experience and training
- Bloom: Let's ensure that the lab workers are carefully vetted and monitored in some way as they do their work
- MIT advisor Guillemin: My experience is microbiology labs look like messy kitchens. We need to address public health risks of research in advance.
- Bloom: I don't see the federal government getting into the vaccine production business #fluforum
- Guillemin: Hundreds of companies have received biodefense funding for research #fluforum
- Bloom: Risks with vaccine research: testing is in healthy volunteers (as opposed to for treatments); huge start-up costs #fluforum
- Why not vaccinate the birds? Vaccines may keep birds from getting sick but not from transmitting the virus, Lipsitch says
- Thank god he made that note, countries have more capability to produce bio-weapons than "terrorists" in "caves"
- Upshot from #fluforum panelists: Need to be open with research, limit labs which test deadly strains, and this virus is no joke. Yikes.
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