How Much Should The Public Be Told About Risky Virus Research?

"U.S. officials are currently weighing the benefits and risks of proposed experiments that might make a dangerous pathogen even worse — but the details of that review, and the exact nature of the experiments, aren't being released to the public."

"At the same time, officials are to hold a meeting in Bethesda, Md., later this week to debate how much information to openly share about this kind of controversial work, and how much to reveal about the reasoning behind decisions to pursue or forgo it."

"The meeting comes as the high stakes of this research are coincidentally being highlighted by events in China, where public health workers are grappling with an outbreak of a new coronavirus. The virus likely first arose in animals and seems to have acquired the ability to be transmitted from person to person."

"How animal viruses can acquire the ability to jump into humans and become contagious is exactly the question that some researchers are trying to answer by manipulating pathogens in the lab, to explore what genetic changes alter their virulence and transmissibility."