Danger of Potential-Pandemic-Pathogen Research Enterprises

The research goal in a number of laboratories is to make highlypathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses contagious to hu-mans via respiratory aerosols. For instance, the H5N1 influenza virus has been made contagious to ferrets (1), the animal model often used as a proxy for humans. Concern over escape from a laboratory of a deadly human-contagious virus (e.g., influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], andMiddle East respi-ratory syndrome [MERS] viruses) prompted the U.S. Govern-ment to hold back funding for this research “until a robust and broad deliberative process (2) is completed that results in the adoption of a new USG gain-of-function research policy. ” This discussion is now under way in the United States and is to be completed in 2016. In relation to this discussion, mBio published three letters to the editor in a debate between Dr. Ron Fouchier andme. Defend-ing the safety of his work in the first letter (3), Dr. Fouchier calcu