The global public health community is facing a very difficult choice. Due to extensive research and experimentation in order to understand the progression and future of the bird flu (H5N1), a highly virulent strain was created that passes easily among ferrets — a common human analog for flu studies.
If it is one thing that history can clearly illustrate for us, it is the very real and serious threat of an pandemic. Most people have heard of the Bubonic Plague, also known as the “Black Death.” What many may not be aware of is that its first appearance was at Constantinople in 543 A.D. Fewer may realize that it still occurs today. An estimated 100-200 million have died from it.
We live in a culturally volatile world. No matter how advanced we become as a species, we always manage to find new, more destructive ways to attack each other. With our experience on how badly a pandemic could affect the world, there is pressure on whether or not there is a limit to how much information is too much information.
Currently, two different prominent journals, “Science” and “Nature,” are putting release of the results of the bird flu study on hold. Federal officials have asked a biosecurity board to review the potential dangers of sharing the finding among the scientific community.
This comes after the U.S. Government explicitly asked the scientists to not publicize their finding in December of 2011. Fear of this turning into a recipe for bio-terrorism is high for the modified bird flu that has maintained a 60 percent fatality rate. With populations much more dense and the ability to quarantine a major metropolitan area difficult, this concern is not without merit.
This move by the government and members of the scientific community has created a backlash within the science community as complaints of censorship become apparent. Many members believe that in censoring the research for the bird flu, both government and some scientists are preventing a vaccine from being discovered sooner.
There are past woes that color this debate on both sides of the censorship fence. On one side, there is the last pandemic of 1918, also a flu, that killed more than 20 million people. On the other side, the 2001 anthrax attacks that left five dead were concluded to be from researcher Dr. Bruce Ivan using a strain from a laboratory sample.