* UPDATED *
# 6152
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security and environment at the World Health Organization, said in a press conference today that a decision has been reached to keep the moratorium on H5N1 research to allow time to address concerns on risk communication and biosecurity.
While stating that the preference is to publish the research papers by Fouchier and Kawaoka in their entirety, that for the time being, they will not be disclosed.
Reuters has a barebones report already online at:
Deadly bird flu studies to stay secret for now - WHO
I’ll update this blog entry with a link to the presser audio file, and transcript, when they become available.
UPDATE: The WHO has posted the audio (MP3) file of the press conference. You can listen at the following link:
http://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/audio/press_briefings/VPC_H5N1_17FEB2012.mp3
I expect to see a flurry of news and opinion pieces coming in the next few hours in the wake of this announcement.
