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Editorial
. 2014 Dec 12;5(6):e02366-14.
doi: 10.1128/mBio.02366-14.

Moratorium on research intended to create novel potential pandemic pathogens

Marc Lipsitch  1 , Thomas V Inglesby  2
Affiliations
Editorial

Moratorium on research intended to create novel potential pandemic pathogens

Marc Lipsitch et al. mBio. .

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Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Weighing risks and benefits. The benefits (squares) of spending a fixed quantity of resources on a portfolio of activities, including PPP research (red), other approaches to influenza virus virology (green), and other public health activities to defeat influenza (yellow), should be weighed against the benefits of a portfolio in which the other activities are expanded to use the resources freed by not supporting PPP activities, reflecting the opportunity cost of the PPP research. If there are net benefits to including PPP activities in the portfolio, then they should be weighed against the net risks created by PPP experiments, which in the case of influenza transmissibility enhancement, we have argued (see the main text, Risk Analysis) are exceptionally high. The balance may differ for other activities, but this comparison of benefits of portfolios with and without gain-of-function experiments is the appropriate comparison, with any net benefits weighed against net risks. univ, universal.
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References

    1. Klotz LC, Sylvester EJ. 2012. The unacceptable risks of a man-made pandemic. Bull. At. Sci. http://thebulletin.org/unacceptable-risks-man-made-pandemic.
    1. Kaiser J. 17 November 2014. Moratorium on risky virology studies leaves work at 14 institutions in limbo. ScienceInsider. http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/11/moratorium-risky-virology-stu....
    1. US Government 17 October 2014. Government gain-of-function deliberative process and research funding pause on selected gain-of-function research involving influenza, MERS, and SARS viruses. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC: http://www.phe.gov/s3/dualuse/Documents/gain-of-function.pdf.
    1. Lipsitch M, Galvani AP. 2014. Ethical alternatives to experiments with novel potential pandemic pathogens. PLoS Med. 11:e1001646. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001646. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Henkel RD, Miller T, Weyant RS. 2012. Monitoring select agent theft, loss and release reports in the United States—2004-2010. Appl. Biosaf. 18:171–180.

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