In a 8th Feb 2019 Report at Science, Jocelyn Kaiser reports on how
laboratory experiments that modify H5N1 "bird flu" virus into a
strain that can make them more risky to humans, has been given the
go-ahead by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
When researchers had modified the H5N1 virus in 2011 so that it
could spread via respiratory droplets between ferrets (ferrets are often
used in immunology experiments as a human analogue), it alarmed many.
An extensive discussion took place at the time as to whether the research
should be published. Eventually it was.
The general consensus is that sooner or later, H5N1 will mutate on its own
in the wild and cross over into a strain that can spread human to human.
In the worse case, this could result in a global pandemic, similar to the
1918 Spanish flu pandemic that infected 500 million people across
the globe and killed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million
people (about 3 to 5 percent of the world's population).
After more published papers and a series of accidents at a
US biocontainment laboratory in 2014, the NIH suspended funding on
the research.
Supporters of the research suggested that it could help in planning
should a pandemic begin in the wild.
Critics warned of the risk of a laboratory modified virus accidentally
being released from the lab or intentionally released by bio-terrorists.
Now, the NIH has once again given the go-ahead for the experimentation
to resume.
Story here :-
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019...-poised-resume