Dutch scientists hidden away in a high-security laboratory are seeking to create mutant flu viruses, dangerous work designed to prepare the world for a lethal pandemic by beating nature to it.
The idea of engineering viral pathogens to be more deadly than they are has already generated huge controversy, amid fears that such viruses could leak out or fall into the wrong hands.
However, with China braced for scores more cases of a new strain of H7N9 bird flu, Ron Fouchier and Ab Osterhaus say the benefits of this gene mutation research far outweigh the risks.
The experiments, designed to explore H7N9’s potential to develop drug resistance and find which genetic modifications might enhance its ability to spread, could offer the know-how to halt a lethal flu pandemic, they say.
That could be with well-timed new vaccines or other therapies tuned to the pandemic strain’s genes.
“We’re bracing for what’s going to happen next. If H7N9 becomes easily transmissible between humans, yes, the case fatality ratio may go down a little from where it is now, but we’d still be talking about millions of people dying,” says Osterhaus, the head of a highly bio-secure laboratory in the Netherlands that will lead some of the H7N9 mutation work. “This is a critical question — what does this virus really need to become transmissible? It is of extreme importance to being able to understand what’s going on.”
As things stand, 45 of the 136 people known to have contracted H7N9 bird flu in China and Taiwan have died — giving a case fatality rate of about 30 percent.
Fouchier, who has already done so-called “gain of function” experiments with another strain of bird flu, H5N1, says we need to get ahead of the game with H7N9 since its pandemic risk would rise “exponentially” if it gained in nature what he aims to give it in the lab — the ability to spread quickly and easily among people.
However, so far, their drive to find out as much as they can about the genetics of bird flu risks rarely wins these world-renowned virologists thanks. More often, it elicits accusations of putting scientific self-interest over security.
‘OUTRAGEOUS CHUTZPAH’
Steven Salzberg, a professor of medicine and biostatistics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, accused them of “an outrageous display of chutzpah” and says Fouchier “is deeply confused about the possible benefits of this work,” which Salzberg says are marginal at best.
“The notion of ‘gain of function’ research on pathogens is very, very dangerous,” he said.
The H7N9 outbreak, which began in February, when the first cases of this flu strain previously unknown in humans emerged, flared up in April and May and dwindled over the summer months.
However, news last week that a 35-year-old from China’s Zhejiang Province is in a critical condition in hospital with the virus reawakened fears that it could come back hard as temperatures drop and the flu season returns.
So, hidden away in an unsignposted corner of the campus of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the port city of Rotterdam, a handful of top security-cleared researchers are selecting, deleting and adding genes to strains of the H7N9 virus to check what it might be capable of in a worst-case scenario.
The studies aim to genetically modify the virus to see what it needs to give it more of a deadly pandemic kick. That could mean making it more virulent, more pathogenic and, crucially, more transmissible — capable of passing easily in droplets through the air from one mammal to another.
Naturally, it is not the sort of work that can be done just anywhere.
The Erasmus team has one of Europe’s most secure laboratories — a so-called Enhanced BSL3, or Bio-Safety Level 3, lab — the highest level of biosecurity for academic research and a facility in which agents can be studied that cause “serious or lethal disease,” but do not ordinarily spread between people and for which treatments or preventives exist.
The highest level, BSL4, requires military guard and applies to pathogens for which there are no preventives or treatments.
SECURITY LAYERS
Fouchier, one of only six people with security clearance to enter the Rotterdam lab, says that despite the presence of mutant viruses, he feels safer there than walking in the street.
“You need special keys to get in. You go though various changes of clothes and through all sorts of interlocked rooms,” he said when a reporter visited the campus. “There are personal pin codes and additional security measures to get through the next series of doors. And there are cameras all over the place, watching you all the time, 24/7.”
Needless to say, media access to the laboratory itself is strictly forbidden.
Fouchier spent several years shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic arguing his case for conducting and publishing similar work on H5N1 bird flu, which so alarmed the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) that it took the unprecedented step of trying to censor publication.
The NSABB had said it feared details of the work could fall into the wrong hands and be used for bioterrorism.
A year-long moratorium on such research followed while the WHO, US security advisers and flu researchers sought ways to ensure the highest safety controls.
With those in place, the WHO satisfied and US research funders broadly agreed, Fouchier and 22 other scientists announced in August that they planned to end the moratorium, and the Dutch team say now is the time to get going.
“The easiest thing would be to back off and say: ‘OK, we won’t touch this anymore,’ but that’s not the right way to behave,” Osterhaus said. “As a scientist, you have a responsibility towards the public, and if we can prevent a pandemic from happening, that could save millions of lives.”
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by the party’s legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) are to visit Beijing for four days this week, but some have questioned the timing and purpose of the visit, which demonstrates the KMT caucus’ increasing arrogance. Fu on Wednesday last week confirmed that following an invitation by Beijing, he would lead a group of lawmakers to China from Thursday to Sunday to discuss tourism and agricultural exports, but he refused to say whether they would meet with Chinese officials. That the visit is taking place during the legislative session and in the aftermath