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Avian Flu Researcher Backs Down On Plan To Defy Publishing Ban

Posted by Unknown on from the would-like-to-see-family-live dept.

ananyo writes "Ron Fouchier, a researcher at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, whose work on the H5N1 avian flu virus has been embroiled in controversy, has now agreed to apply for an export permit to submit his work to the journal Science. Fouchier's paper is one of two reporting the creation of forms of the H5N1 virus capable of spreading between mammals. The other, by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Tokyo, and his colleagues, has already been submitted to Nature. Fouchier had said last week that he intended to defy the government and submit the work to Science without seeking the export permit that the Dutch government says is required." In related news, renek noted that the U.S. NIH director supports publishing the papers in full.

6 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Director of NIH? by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    There's a guy who's in charge of a department devoted to grumbling that things were "not invented here"?

    I wonder where that dumb idea came from.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. How to defend ourselves against technology? by concealment · · Score: 2

    With each new advance come new powers; with new powers, the ability to commit evils.

    When humankind invented the axe, murder got a lot easier.

    With the computer, hacking.

    With home DNA synthesis, biological warfare.

    When we get nuclear reactors for the home, all sorts of bad stuff can be done.

    Do we retreat from technology just because there are going to be evils?

    Or accept that we're going to take some casualties and move forward?

  3. Triple negative by LambdaWolf · · Score: 3, Funny

    I love the way that headline is phrased. So he's not deciding not to follow the rule about not publishing, eh?

    --
    "This algorithm runs in constant time. Come on, 2,147,483,648 is a constant..."
  4. You can't handle the truth! by pla · · Score: 3

    So "the truth" now requires an export permit before we dare speak of it in public?

    Well and truly fucked, the lot of us.

  5. Devil's advocacy department by concealment · · Score: 2

    It's another thing altogether to outright aim for weaponizing a disease to begin with and then publish the blueprints for doing so for the world to read. How does this possibly benefit society by any stretch of the imagination?

    If I find a way to immunize the population against cancer, but the only delivery system is through a modified bird flu virus, it's very helpful to have this information out in public.

  6. Re:way to cave by onyxruby · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, it's not like variations of the flu have killed more people than all of our wars combined. It's not like we have a lack of organizations that believe in terror or widespread murders. Heck, we don't even have any environmental radicals that just might look at a world wide population reduction as the best possible thing that could happen to the environment. Nope, no reason at all to be concerned about this....