Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The New Bird Flu Virus

Opinion Piece:
Published: March 13, 2012

To the Editor:

Re “The Truth About the Doomsday Virus?” (editorial, March 4):

The confused and partisan attempts to evaluate the risks of the recently constructed influenza strains — and what to do about them once defined — reflect the complete absence of a strategy for dealing with a rapidly growing threat: the technology underlying these viral constructs is fast approaching a stage where pathogens capable of killing millions can be designed and produced at modest cost using widely available techniques.

No scientific, professional or government body is adequately engaged in addressing this danger. Policies need to be put in place that allow science to move forward without putting a loaded gun in the hands of terrorists.

Censoring science is a bad idea. But publishing detailed descriptions of how to synthesize a pathogen with the capability of triggering a pandemic is worse.

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