Halt to bird flu research extended; Boston Herald, LA Times, WHO Attempt Smoke Screen for Weaponized H5N1 Creator, Insane Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka; Coming Soon : More "Smoking Gun" E-mails from Teridah Ernala Ginting to The 5th Estate

Under fire for illegal, secret lab at Kobe University, creation of weaponized H5N1 by Teridah Ernala Ginting, Kawaoka now lies about lethal virus he created with stolen Indoneisan H5N1 DNA in order to put blame on Indonesia, says it can be treated with "drugs;" Ernala, Makino, Kawaoka attempt to derail espionage investigation by Indonesian authorities with yet more lies; University of Wisconsin H5N1 lab now involved by virus thief Makino

The Boston Herald
By Erin Brown/LA Times
02/18/2012

LOS ANGELES -

A panel of experts convened by the World Health Organization has decided to extend a moratorium on research using laboratory-modified - and potentially dangerous - strains of the H5N1 influenza virus, also known as bird flu.

H5N1 creator Ron Fouchier now under fire for Kawaoka association

The 22-member panel also announced that two controversial H5N1 papers temporarily shelved by the prestigious journals Science and Nature would not be modified and published in the near future, as originally planned. Instead, the research is likely to be published in full at a later date.

The decisions, announced Friday at the close of a two-day meeting in Geneva, follow intense months of debate over the risks and benefits of publishing the studies.

In the wild, H5N1 has proved highly lethal to humans, killing nearly 60 percent of those known to be infected. But the versions in nature do not pass easily between humans.

Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin in Madison led teams that engineered new strains of bird flu that were easily transmitted through the air between mammals. Fouchier said his strain remained highly lethal; Kawaoka reported that his strain lost some of its killing power and could be managed with drugs.

WHO Asst. Director  K. Fukuda now regrets supporting Kawaoka

Some health officials worried that if one of the new highly contagious bird flu strains somehow escaped the laboratory - or if people with intent to do harm learned how to engineer and release lethal bird flu strains using methods published in the papers - it could unleash a deadly global pandemic.

Many scientists, however, argued that moving ahead with the H5N1 research was essential for developing prevention strategies and treatments so they would be prepared if a pandemic were to arise naturally.

Bruce Alberts, the editor of Science, said Friday that his journal had planned to release an amended version of Fouchier’s paper in mid-March. "That’s not going happen" now, he said.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

Images:  Google royalty free unless otherwise attributed.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Read more »