Doubts and opposition
Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, who says he doubts the research could be used to predict pandemics. Dr. Ebright is one of the staunch opponents of the recent bird flu researches because of their risks.
While acknowledging that Dr. Kawaoka’s work may indeed be less lethal than that produced in the Netherlands, Dr. Ebright says “it still has significant pandemic potential” since the only vaccine currently available against it’s an experimental H5N1 vaccine that isn’t widely stockpiled.
While the moratorium was a good idea, it isn’t long enough he also says. Sixty days would not be enough time to put the needed safeguards in place, he says, also lamenting that the flu scientists’ letter did not acknowledge the need for improved “biosafety, biosecurity and oversight.”
Dr. Ebright says experiments with this virus should be done only in laboratories with the highest biosafety rating, BSL4—not in the “enhanced BSL3” in which the work was actually done.
Dr. Fouchier disagrees, pointing out that his center did not have BSL4 labs. Federal agency’s Fauci also points out that various expert groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had determined that enhanced BSL3 was good enough for bird flu research.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Kawaoka conducts his research at the Institute for Influenza Virus Research at University Research Park—a lab classified as Biosafety Level 3-Agriculture, the highest biosafety level of a UW-Madison lab and a notch below the top security level for research involving pathogens and toxins.
Dr. Kawaoka moved his research into the facility in 2009, only after it was inspected by the CDC. University officials say that before the virologist was allowed to continue his work, the Institutional Biosafety Committee also reviewed the proposed protocols for biosafety, making sure those who work in the lab are protected and that the lab has all necessary safety features.
Because bird flu transmissibility research involves what’s called a select agent, an additional level of biosecurity is required, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports. Select agents are pathogens and toxins that have required special oversight since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Only those with background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation are allowed into the lab, says William Mellon, associate dean for research policy and a professor of pharmacy. Mellon oversees UW’s program for select agents.
The US$12.5 million lab was built in 2007 after the University of Pittsburgh attempted to lure Kawaoka away from UW.
But even if virus is safe enough to be studied in labs with only medium-high biosecurity levels, Dr. Ebright counters that, “This virus will not be the endpoint; the first experiment that will be done with it will be an effort to enhance its lethality.”
That process, he argues, should not proceed without national or international review. “These are decisions that cannot be left to the individual investigators,” he says.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Biosecurity director and CEO agrees. Speaking to NPR,
Dr. Thomas Inglesby says,“It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it.”
Good faith
According to Fauci, he was able to convince Dr. Fouchier to stop research momentarily after pointing out that “people beyond our control” might put pressure on the National Institutes of Health to pull funding from such research and “the better part of valor might be for the scientists themselves to propose the moratorium.”
But there was never an explicit threat to pull funding, Fauci stressed, saying the scientists undertook the moratorium willingly. Fouchier “was concerned about having an open-ended moratorium that would go on forever,” he says.
In fact, he says “looming” concerns that biosecurity experts might overreact and impose excessive restrictions on the research has led him to urge the researchers to show good faith and flexibility by declaring the moratorium themselves.
“I think it’s important research that needs to go forward,” Dr. Fauci says. “I think we need to get greater input on the conditions in which it goes forward.”
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