Too late to contain killer flu science, say experts
Blizard Institute: Professor John Oxford
Too late to contain killer flu science, say experts
The Independent
The US government has asked two scientific journals not to publish key pieces of research on a killer strain of bird flu, to prevent the information falling into the hands of terrorists who could use it to make a bio-weapon. Scientists say that attempts to suppress details of the experiments are futile as the information has been widely shared already by flu researchers. Wendy Barclay, professor of influenza virology at Imperial College London said: “The exact mutations that made this transformation possible were not particularly novel or unexpected.” Professor Oxford added that the study “reminds us of how wafer thin the barrier is between a benign H5N1 virus and one that could spread easily”.