Fears of bioterrorism or an accidental release
In a preview of what is likely now playing out in a closed-door meeting of the World Health Organization, a cadre of experts on infectious disease gathered Wednesday at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to debate whether efforts to combat a deadly form of flu have actually increased the risk to public health. Panelists at The Forum at Harvard School of Public Health examined “Bird Flu Research: Dangerous Information on a Deadly Virus,” in a sober discussion about H5N1, an avian flu that has infected about 600 people worldwide since 2003, and killed approximately 60 percent of them. Under direction by moderator Sharon Begley, the senior U.S. Health and Science correspondent for Reuters, the panelists agreed that the creation in laboratories of a different form of H5N1, one that could now pass from mammal to mammal, was done with the best intentions: to determine whether this virus could mutate to...