Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article...of-labcreated-flu-outbreaks.html#.U7Rl1ahpehc
How scared should we be of lab-created flu outbreaks?
18:33 02 July 2014 by Debora MacKenzie
For similar stories, visit the Epidemics and Pandemics Topic Guide
According to articles in the UK press, Yoshi Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has "deliberately created a pandemic strain of flu that can evade the human immune system". Some reports even allege the work recreates the deadly 1918 pandemic flu virus in a form that resists vaccines.
How worried should we be about the newly created viruses?
Not much at all ? and certainly not about either of the claims above. But there might be cause for concern in the way this kind of research is being regulated.
Did Yoshi Kawaoka actually make a copy of the deadly 1918 pandemic virus that evades human immunity and vaccines?
No. The work looked at the potential evolution of a current strain of winter flu.
Kawaoka has told New Scientist that he was exposing the currently circulating winter flu virus descended from the 2009 swine flu to the immune reactions it induces in people and animals, to see what mutants emerge. "This kind of work has been done for more than 30 years, to help in the selection of vaccine strains," he says.
Why is such work necessary?...
How scared should we be of lab-created flu outbreaks?
18:33 02 July 2014 by Debora MacKenzie
For similar stories, visit the Epidemics and Pandemics Topic Guide
According to articles in the UK press, Yoshi Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has "deliberately created a pandemic strain of flu that can evade the human immune system". Some reports even allege the work recreates the deadly 1918 pandemic flu virus in a form that resists vaccines.
How worried should we be about the newly created viruses?
Not much at all ? and certainly not about either of the claims above. But there might be cause for concern in the way this kind of research is being regulated.
Did Yoshi Kawaoka actually make a copy of the deadly 1918 pandemic virus that evades human immunity and vaccines?
No. The work looked at the potential evolution of a current strain of winter flu.
Kawaoka has told New Scientist that he was exposing the currently circulating winter flu virus descended from the 2009 swine flu to the immune reactions it induces in people and animals, to see what mutants emerge. "This kind of work has been done for more than 30 years, to help in the selection of vaccine strains," he says.
Why is such work necessary?...