Leading virologists on Wednesday warned of censorship after a US bioterror watchdog asked scientific journals to withhold details of lab work that created a mutant strain of killer flu. The controversy erupted on Tuesday when the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) urged the world's two top journals to exclude key details before publishing the research papers.
In what is believed to be the first time it has made the recommendation, the government monitor cited an "extremely serious global health threat." As the US-published Science and its counterpart in London, Nature, mulled the request, some experts said the NSABB request was an over-reaction.
Others said it could set a worrying precedent for the free flow of information a vital component in scientific advance. "It's going to sully scientific communication if, for spurious concern about biological warfare, little groups of self-appointed people start censoring," said John Oxford, a professor at London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry.