Via Reuters: Bird flu mutation studies must go on, says scientist. Excerpt:
A scientist researching a potentially highly lethal airborne version of the H5N1 bird flu virus said on Wednesday he must be allowed to pursue his studies if deadly pandemics are to be prevented.
Despite declaring last week a 60-day moratorium on the studies to allay security fears, Yoshihiro Kawaoka argued in a commentary in the journal Nature it was urgent and vital that his work continue.
Kawaoka, of Tokyo University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, is a lead researcher on one of two recent studies showing how H5N1 can be transmitted through airborne droplets, and his work is at the centre of an international row over whether its findings should be censored.
In December a U.S. advisory board asked two leading journals, Nature and Science, to withhold details of both studies for fear it could be used by bioterrorists. The journals have accepted the studies but have not yet said if they will publish them in full.
Last week, the two teams - Kawaoka's and a second team led by Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands - said they would temporarily suspend their research because of the concerns.
But writing in Nature on Wednesday, Kawaoka argued it would be "irresponsible" and dangerous not to continue researching highly pathogenic bird flu viruses.
Helen Branswell of The Canadian Press also has a good report on this.
