EXPERIMENTS to put genes from the smallpox virus into other pox viruses have in effect been approved by the World Health Organization. The WHO’s 192 member states agreed at their annual meeting in Geneva last week that the work could go ahead, subject to one more safety review.
The experiments, aimed at testing new drugs and diagnostics, were recommended last December by a WHO advisory committee composed mainly of pox researchers. But WHO director-general Jong-Wook Lee asked members to “reconsider” in the light of fears that such hybrids could escape. Members approved other experiments, including inserting a fluorescent marker into…
