Dr Anthony Fauci testifies to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs regarding the “important and intense discourse” to recent manuscripts highlighting the potential risks of conducting “dual use research of concern” (DURC) on the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
These dual use experiments, that genetically manipulate pathogens, could “yield new information” and help “identify molecular targets on pathogenic microbes” that can lead to the development of new vaccines, but also has the potential for bioweapon applications, the latter being DURC.
DURC can yield products that if “misapplied…pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety.”
The research is justified because of the worldwide “thread to public health” from seasonal and pandemic influenza, which is said to be “among the leading global cause of death due to infectious diseases” and is estimated by WHO to cause annually between “250,000 to 500,000 influenza-related deaths” globally.
Experimenting to see “which genetic mutations” alter virus transmissibility or pathogenicity using ferrets as models helps with the goal of developing a “universal” influenza vaccine, of which a “prime-boost” gene-based vaccine seems promising.