"A draft report from a key advisory board comes after a nearly year-long review of existing guidelines".
"Scientists advising the National Institutes of Health on Friday released a draft report urging intensified government oversight of experiments on dangerous pathogens, including broadening the definition of the kinds of pathogens that could trigger a pandemic.
The new report from two biosecurity working groups echoes their preliminary recommendations released last fall, which said the definition of “enhanced potential pandemic pathogens” should cover not just the most lethal viruses and bacteria, but also less deadly pathogens that are extremely transmissible — a description that fits the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
NIH said the review was not in response to fears that SARS-CoV-2 might have emerged from laboratory research. The debate over lab safety and security intensified during the pandemic but goes back more than a decade, when experiments in the United States and the Netherlands created versions of the influenza virus that were more easily transmitted among ferrets."
Joel Achenbach reports for the Washington Post January 20, 2023.
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