Kawaoka also mounted a vigorous defense of the studies' importance, pointing out that they formed part of an established research program deemed important in reports by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, and that similar transmission studies had been carried out and published for years. He spoke at length about the safety and security procedures at his lab.
Meanwhile, the reasons for the change of heart at NSABB—which one attendee described as having "multiple personality disorder"—came under scrutiny as well. NSABB acting chair Paul Keim explained that the group was swayed by new and confidential information about both the risks and the potential benefits of the studies and by the fact that the U.S. government is putting in place a new policy that will provide a much more comprehensive review of so-called dual use research of concern. It had also concluded that redacting critical information and making it available only to people with a legitimate interest in seeing it was, at least in the short run, unworkable.
But another key reason, Keim said, was that Fouchier has revised and expanded his manuscript, which now makes clear that the newly created virus isn't deadly when transmitted from one ferret to another through sneezing and coughing. Based on Fouchier's first manuscript and interviews he gave in the press, the board was under the impression that the virus was lethal under those conditions, too, says Robert Webster, an influenza virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, who advised NSABB during both its first and second review. "That scared the jesus out of everyone," he says.
Once the group had read the revised paper, it became clear that it was all a "giant misunderstanding," Webster says. At a press conference yesterday, Fouchier said the information about virulence was in the original paper, although perhaps not presented as clearly as it could have been because the paper was short.
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/04/free-to-speak-kawaoka-reveals-fl.htmlFrom December:
According to information already available, however, Fouchier essentially generated his new virus using the 19th-century approach of growing it in an animal over and over again. After ten transfers, the virus had adapted to ferrets. This experiment does not need complex laboratory facilities. An egg incubator, a supply of fertilised hens eggs and a syringe are all that are needed. I grew litres of virus this way when I used to work on bird flu. And ferrets are freely available: my great-uncle used them to hunt rabbits. The most difficult task would be getting some H5N1 virus.
Fouchier has identified five mutations in two genes that are responsible for the change in the virus. Knowing what they are could be a vitally important tool in the rapid detection of new H5N1 strains in the wild with significant pandemic potential. And if terrorists wanted to hot up H5N1 they would be much more likely to use the ferret approach than genetic engineering based on gene sequences. So the sequences should be published: the benefit to public protection greatly outweighs the risk. If they are seriously concerned about the terrorist threat from flu, MI5 should consider keeping an eye on anyone who buys an egg incubator, and recommend that the government introduce a ferret licensing scheme.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/12/21/hugh-pennington/ferrets-of-mass-destruction/
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