Two scientific journals are deciding whether to publish details of a man-made mutant killer flu virus that has sparked concerns of mass deaths if it were released. A US government's science advisory committee urged the US journal Science and the British journal Nature to withhold key details so that people seeking to harm the public would not be able to manufacture the virus that could cause millions of deaths. The virus in question is an H5N1 bird flu strain that was genetically altered in a Dutch lab so it can pass easily between ferrets, meaning that it is likely contagious among humans and could trigger a lethal pandemic if it emerged in nature or were set loose by terrorists. Scientists could benefit from knowing about the virus because it could help speed new treatments to combat this and other related lethal forms of influenza. Paul Keim, a microbial geneticist, said that he had huge concerns about the potential havoc the man-made virus could unleash. "I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one," Keim was quoted as saying. "I don't think anthrax is scary at all compared to this."
There is an interesting moral dilemma here. On one hand, this virus is deadly and could be used for mass terrorism on an unprecedented scale. On the other hand, the data from this virus could be of great use to scientists working on flu vaccinations and other methods for treating viruses. Personally, I think that they should not release a full version of the flu until they have synthesized a cure to this deadly flu-that way the threat of this deadly virus can be negated.
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