Science Panel Recommends Censoring Bird Flu Papers

Morty writes "The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has recommended that details of two research papers involving Avian Flu not be published because of security concerns. At least one of the research groups says that their work should be logically reproducible. The NSABB's censorship recommendations do not (currently) have the force of law, but Science and Nature voluntarily delayed publication."

Comments

Wrong way around

[gtch]

If they don't want anyone to read the papers, they should print off millions of copies with an official-looking government cover, then send them out all over the country with big letters on the envelope: "Important Information from Your Government".

That guarantees no-one will read it.

Re:Wrong way around

[chromas]

Or staple together said millions of copies and submit them to the House/Senate as a bill.

Re:Wrong way around

[sakdoctor]

Nobody would read it, and it would pass.

Interesting parallel to I.T.

[Kinky Bass Junk]

When security vulnerabilities are discovered in a piece of software (that is not open source), the release of that information may be delayed to allow sufficient time for the developers to patch the vulnerability. This organisation is basically asking that the release of this information be delayed until such a time as it is irrelevant. The problem we see with this is that people will always find the unreleased vulnerabilities, and it is entirely possible that this will happen in this case, but it would be a bit more catastrophic than a 0-day IIS vulnerability.

Re:Quick

[RDW]

Call Dustin Hoffman and tell him Gary Sinese is immune

It's the supporting cast you have to worry about. From the Washington Post article:

"Fears of bad actors spreading a mutant, highly transmissible virus suffuse the three-page note published by the board."

I think it's no coincidence

[erroneus]

Just look at the fact that the bird flu story is directly after then Angry Birds story. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm waking up at 3am and later about 5-something AM, but I think there's more than just a casual connection here. Look at the facts:

1. Both about birds.
2. Both about people unable to control themselves.
3. One is about a bird virus, the other about birds going viral.

There is something at play here... not sure what it is just yet...

Re:I think it's no coincidence

[a_hanso]

Late stage angry bird flu will cause the sufferer to repeatedly fling himself at any loose assemblage of bricks, wood or stone in the vicinity.

Re:I think it's no coincidence

[goldaryn]

The green sickly pigs in Angry Birds were inspired by the Swine Flu epidemic

I like to imagine that the back-story is: the birds are angry because they are in biological warfare with their piggy enemies. Avian flu... swine flu...

Re:lol ... why international law? NIH in the US!

[equex]

Afaik, this research is also locked down and kept secret in Europe for the same reasons as in the US. These strains of flu viruses are well understood and is probably one of the easiest to modify given the knowledge and research already done. I know little of the subject, but let's say the Stuxnet code was published and all that was needed to make it take down 70% of the nuclear plants in the world at the same time by simply uncommenting a ''Fuxx0rThemAllSimultaneously()' function call. Even a novice programmer would figure that out. Maybe that flu virus is analogous, and requires not much else than a novice fucking around with it to make it uber-deadly. I'd prefer they kept it hidden.

Incorrect.

[Jane Q. Public]

What they actually did was create a NEW strain of the virus, which was physically transmissible. Before they bred this transmissible virus via ferrets, it was not easily transmitted to humans.

So what they did was actually create a superflu... one with a high mortality rate in humans and is easily transmissible. Whereas before these experiments, it already had a high mortality rate, but was not easy to transmit.

These were extrememly dangerous experiments that should never have been carried out. The labs where they did this work do make mistakes... we know because they have suffered loss of containment in the past!

If you want to read more about it, just google "H5N1" and "ferret".

Re:Incorrect.

[emilper]

there was another thread about this same subject a few weeks ago, and there was no "new strain of the virus", just a virus sharing one of the proteins that help the virii attach to cells

while we have lots of resistant bacterias living in our hospitals (and by our mean "all the hospitals in the world"), we're getting hype over this ... not sure any more it's hysterics or histrionics ... maybe Netherlands needs pretexts to wipe out chicken farms somewhere ...

here you go, mandatory link to non-brain-damaged content ... http://www.virology.ws/2011/12/06/ferreting-out-influenza-h5n1/

Scientists appear to be responsible for the hype surrounding this experiment. Fouchier called it ‘one of the most dangerous viruses you can make’. Paul Keim, chair of NSABB, ‘can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one’, and Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University says the experiment should not have been done. Martin Enserink writing in ScienceInsider says that the virus could change world history, and similar proclamations of doom can be found in the popular press.

Passage of viruses in a different host is one strategy for reducing the virulence in humans. This concept is explained in this passage from Principles of Virology:

Less virulent (attenuated) viruses can be selected by growth in cells other than those of the normal host, or by propagation at nonphysiological temperatures. Mutants able to propagate better under these selective conditions arise during viral replication. When such mutants are isolated, purified, and subsequently tested for pathogenicity in appropriate models, some may be less pathogenic than their parent.

The possibility that passage of the H5N1 virus in ferrets will attenuate its virulence in humans has been ignored.

getting tired of this ...

Re:Incorrect.

[GauteL]

Actually, I was to quick about it and I apologise. Please mod down my parent post as it is nonsense.

Re:lol ... why international law? NIH in the US!

[oreaq]

[...] but let's say the Stuxnet code was published [...]

Most of it was decompiled and published here. You can find all the binaries online if you're really interested. Hiding the results is just security by obscurity. The Dutch scientist didn't perform some magic trick that nobody else can do. Doesn't make it any less scary though.

Even terrorists wouldn't release this

[Viol8]

Since they'd kill their own people and snuff out their cause.

However that still leaves the deranged , which unfortunately there are a lot of on the planet. Though whether they could be deranged enough AND smart enough at the same time to do it is another matter.

The important secret is already out.

[dpbsmith]

The important atomic bomb secret was that it could be done.

The important secret here is that "university-based scientists in the Netherlands and Wisconsin created a version of the so-called H5N1 influenza virus that is highly lethal and easily transmissible between ferrets."

Assume that there are terrorists out there who wish to develop a virological weapon, and have the smarts and the wherewithal to do so. They now know that the H5N1 virus is a good place to start and that there's a winning combination to be found. Holding back the precise blueprint isn't going to delay things much. You have to assume the terrorists are capable of doing research-quality work. It sounds rather as if researchers in the Netherlands and Wisconsin both found answers indepedently. It's quite possible that the terrorists, working on their own, will find something original and better than either of them.

What suppressing the research might do is make it difficult for other researchers to experiment with protective measures against them.