Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
White House acts to shut down "Gain of Function" |
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CRS, DrPH
Expert Level Adviser Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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Posted: October 22 2014 at 12:46pm |
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/10/20/should-we-allow-scientists-to-create-dangerous-super-viruses/
Very important development for all of us on AFT! As many of us know, certain academic scientists (Kawaoka at Univ of Wisconsin for one) have insisted upon experimenting with dangerous flu strains (H5N1, H7N9) to amplify their virulence through "gain of function" experiments. Fouchier and Kawaoka had already done the same thing with the deadly H5N1 “bird flu” virus, causing a huge outcry among scientists and the public. As reported in Science magazine almost three years ago, Fouchier admitted that his artificially mutated H5N1 was “probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make.”
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CRS, DrPH
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Kay
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The Gain of Function wasn't being use to find flu vaccines?
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CRS, DrPH
Expert Level Adviser Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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No, that was only an excuse for the researchers to noodle with the viruses. It seems they have some sick need to breed potentially lethal pandemic strains in the lab to prove.....who knows? The odds that a mutation will occur in nature that is exactly like their mutation is next to zero. It is sheer academic arrogance of the worst/most dangerous kind. Questioning the claimed benefitsIn the view of GOF-research proponents, those public health benefits mainly involve an improved ability to detect dangerous viruses and to develop vaccines against pandemic flu strains. Lipsitch and Galvani contest both of those claims. They say vaccine developers have denied the vaccine claim, noting that many vaccines have been developed without "a detailed molecular understanding of transmission." Further, the authors question the rationale that creating a potentially pandemic strain of H5N1 would be justified because it could permit the production of vaccines against that strain. "Given that PPP [potential pandemic pathogen] experiments inevitably consider only a few possible genetic pathways to transmissibility, and that the precise correspondence between transmissibility in the ferret model and human transmissibility remains uncertain, we can never know whether PPP experimentation would hit upon the antigenic composition of the next pandemic strain that will emerge from nature," they write. |
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CRS, DrPH
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Kay
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G.ood they stopped the program then
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arirish
Admin Group Joined: June 19 2013 Location: Arkansas Status: Offline Points: 39215 |
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Chuck-Thanks to you and all the other level headed professionals for keeping the pressure up over the last few months! Keep up the good fight! Let us all know if there is anything we can do to help!
Irish |
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Buy more ammo!
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CRS, DrPH
Expert Level Adviser Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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You are very welcome, it is my pleasure to provide leadership! I wrote an email to the President of the University of Wisconsin about Kawaoka's risky flu research, this was the official reply: July 14, 2014 Dear CRS
Thank you for contacting us about your concerns regarding Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka’s gain-of-function influenza research conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We understand you have already received a letter from UW System Administration on a related matter but we, too, will attempt to address them. We start by pointing out that not all news outlets have been uniformly responsible in their coverage of Dr. Kawaoka’s work. Several have distorted or ignored many of the facts to enhance their angle on the story. There are actually two different sets of experiments being discussed in the media, though sometimes this is not clear. While both involve H1N1 research, one involves the 2009 H1N1 strain and the other involves a 1918-like strain. The 2009 H1N1 influenza virus is now considered a seasonal strain and labs across the globe routinely work with it at biosafety level two. After careful consideration, UW’s Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) determined BSL-2 appropriate for Dr. Kawaoka’s work as well. Experiments with 1918-like influenza are conducted at BSL-3 Ag, a higher stringency than BSL-3 labs elsewhere and higher than what is required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Dr. Kawaoka has safely conducted influenza research at UW for years. The work is performed with significant oversight from the university’s Select Agent Program and the federal entities that oversee the program, including APHIS and the CDC. Dr. Kawaoka’s laboratory, as well as all the laboratories in the university’s Select Agent Program, are inspected regularly, sometimes without notice, and are tested on an annual basis to ensure they are functioning properly. Although there is no such thing as zero risk, University of Wisconsin-Madison is confident that work with important pathogens can be carried out safely and securely. Sincerely, Alternate Responsible Official Office of Biological Safety University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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CRS, DrPH
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ASB
V.I.P. Member Joined: October 16 2014 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 690 |
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Oh the CDC oversees the project. well that makes it perfectly safe then because we ll know the CDC is a paragon of competence.
It seems to be that the need for inspections says a few things: that there is a risk or inspections would not be needed. That there is room for human error or inpsections would not be needed. That there is oversight - a good thing. I am not being sarcastic in that last one - oversight is good. And it worked perfectly at Chernobyl (sarcasm again).
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