Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Experiments with Pathogens of Pandemic Potential, Such as Influenza Virus: a Call for a Science- Based Discussion

Influenza virus is one of a handful of infectious disease agentsthat can cause devastating pandemics with high mortality and morbidity in human populations. The human species is vulnera-ble to zoonotic infection with new influenza viruses, with the last occurring as recently as 2009. Influenza kills thousands of people each year, and theworld is continuously confronting new epidem-ics. Today the complexity and interconnectivity of our society create vulnerabilities, such that pandemics with even low mortal-ity have the potential to cause widespread suffering and economic disruption. Epidemics can have catastrophic effects on the social order and result in the disruption of benefits that we associatewith current society, such as law and order and reliable food distribu-tion (for a vivid and dramatic representation of the effect of epi-demics on society, readers are invited to see the movie Contagion, where an outbreak with a new fictional virus leads to the break-down of the social order). Hence, epidemics pose existentia