“We want to be sure we’re doing this right.”In October 2014, all federal funding was halted on efforts to make three viruses more dangerous: the flu virus, and those causing Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). For example, they would apply to a request to create an Ebola virus transmissible through the air, said Dr. Collins. Tensions rose in 2014 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidentally exposed lab workers to anthrax and shipped a deadly flu virus to a laboratory that had asked for a benign strain. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. When the moratorium was imposed, it effectively halted 21 projects, Dr. Collins said.

Source: New York Times December 19, 2017 13:52 UTC