Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research
"Creation of a chimaera
"The argument is essentially a rerun of the debate over whether to allow lab research that increases the virulence, ease of spread or host range of dangerous pathogens — what is known as ‘gain-of-function’ research. In October 2014, the US government imposed a moratorium on federal funding of such research on the viruses that cause SARS, influenza and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, a deadly disease caused by a virus that sporadically jumps from camels to people)."
"The latest study was already under way before the US moratorium began, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed it to proceed while it was under review by the agency, says Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a co-author of the study. The NIH eventually concluded that the work was not so risky as to fall under the moratorium, he says."
The NIH eventually concluded that the work was not so risky as to fall under the moratorium, he says.”
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Looks like the umpires at the NIH missed the call on this foul bat.
“The argument is essentially a rerun of the debate over whether to allow lab research that increases the virulence, ease of spread or host range of dangerous pathogens — what is known as ‘gain-of-function’ research.
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And the obvious question is why wound anyone fund “gain of function” research on a virus except as part of a bioweapons program. What other purpose would it serve to try to make a virus *more* deadly?