Published on December 21, 2012 at 5:54 AM
"The government is accepting comments on that draft policy until January 10, and officials indicated that a final version could come soon after," according to the blog. The moratorium "came in response to fears that NIH-funded researchers in two labs had created contagious forms of H5N1 bird flu virus that could potentially cause a pandemic in people, if the contagious germs escaped or fell into the wrong hands," the blog notes (Greenfieldboyce, 12/19). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci "said that H5N1 researchers whom the agency funds have been holding to the moratorium until the NIH has a final draft of its new funding policy in place," CIDRAP states (12/18). "Shots" adds, "The World Health Organization is planning to hold another conference to discuss the issues raised by this research at the end of February" (12/19).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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