Abstract
Last October, the White House imposed a “pause” on gain-of-function (GoF) research involving the influenza and two coronaviruses, SARS and MERS, pending a two-part review of safety and security concerns that is aimed at developing a new policy for dealing with such research. One part of that review continues within the federal National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), while the second part took place more publicly last December during the symposium “Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research,” convened by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. This latter phase apparently helped persuade officials late in December to exempt some MERS projects from the pause, which otherwise remains in effect.
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