Insufficient Fear of the “Super-flu”?The World Health Organization’s Global Decision-Making for Health

Should scientists be permitted—even paid—to create new strains of flu virus that combine higher transmissibility with higher lethality than existing strains? The World Health Organization has already placed its imprimatur on the decision that they should. Should these new strains be widely shared around the globe among other interested scientists? The World Health Organization has already urged that they should. Does work with these strains require the highest level of bio-containment available? Not at all, insist those who work with the virus. Trust us, they say. The flu is miserable even in its ordinary versions. The flu can also kill. In some times and places, some strains of flu have killed millions of people (Ansart et al., 2009; US Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). These scientists are thus asking us to trust them with our lives. A broad literature in science and health studies has already suggested many ways in which trust in th