Shots - Health News Wed January 23, 2013 Scientists Put An End
To Moratorium On Bird Flu Research Originally published on Wed
January 23, 2013 7:53 pm Controversial experiments on bird flu
could resume within weeks because leading influenza researchers
around the world have finally called a halt to an unusual
moratorium that has lasted more than a year. The voluntary pause
in the research started back in January 2012. Scientists had
genetically altered the bird flu virus H5N1, changing it in ways
that allowed it to spread through the coughs and sneezes of
ferrets — the lab stand-in for people. But the experiments
caused a public outcry. Critics charged that if the man-made
viruses ever got out of the lab, they could be contagious in
humans and start a deadly pandemic. Virologist Ron Fouchier of
Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, whose lab did some of
these experiments, says weighing the risks and benefits of this
research isn't easy. "But it's clear that all of the 40 people
who announced the moratori