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March 31st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda SATURDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) — Research on a mutated,
more contagious form of the bird flu virus can be published in full, U.S.
government biosecurity advisers said Friday, despite initial concerns that
bioterrorists could use the information to start a pandemic.
The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity said two research
papers, which have been revised since they were first offered for
publication late last year, have been reworked enough so they no longer
contain details that might be of value to bioterrorists. The advisers’
recommendation now goes to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services for a decision, the Associated Press reported.
In December, the advisers recommended against publication of the papers
because doing so was potentially risky.
The two studies at the center of the debate were to be published in the
journals Science and Nature late last year. The papers,
which were funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, describe how
the virus could mutate relatively easily into a strain that could spread
rapidly among humans. The research was done by scientists at the
University of Wisconsin and in the Netherlands.
Although the bird flu virus, known as H5N1, rarely infects people, it
appears to be highly lethal when it does. Of about 600 known cases, more
than half have been fatal. If the virus were able to spread more easily
from birds to humans, experts have estimated that millions of people could
die after being infected.
Friday’s recommendation could end a debate that involved scientists
worldwide. Many contended that full publication of the two papers would
help scientists monitor potentially dangerous mutations in bird flu
viruses that circulate naturally. The papers could also help test vaccines
and treatments for a mutated form of the bird flu, some scientists said,
the AP reported.
In February, the World Health Organization made a similar
recommendation to publish the studies after a special meeting of 22 bird
flu experts in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting was convened by the WHO to
discuss the “urgent issues” that have swirled around possible publication
of the two bird flu studies since last November, The New York Times
reported.
Most of those at the Geneva meeting felt that any theoretical terrorist
risk was outweighed by the “real and present danger” of similar flu virus
mutations occurring naturally in the wild, and by the need for the
scientific community to share information that could help identify exactly
when the virus might be developing the ability to spread more easily, Dr.
Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, told the Times. Fauci represented the United
States at the meeting.
The editors of both journals said they plan to publish the papers in
full at a future date.
More information
For more on how the bird flu virus might be able to infect humans,
visit the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases.
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