Fouchier's study was greenlighted in advance by the Dutch Commission on Genetic Modification (COGEM), but that only means the panel is satisfied with safety procedures at Fouchier's lab, explains chair Bastiaan Zoeteman; it's not COGEM's job to decide whether a study is desirable.
This is a sinister claim, and even in the comparatively unthreatening environment of the lab, approaching the chair is a matter of some apprehension.
"The committee looked at (various) proposed activities and whether that activity could be performed at another lab," says study chair Terry McElwain, a pathologist at Washington State University, Pullman.
"We felt it was important to bring on a strong scientist with a deep commitment to [environment, safety, and health matters] who has experience with the lab," says AUI Chair Paul Martin.
The findings and recommendations thus concern administrators, deans, department chairs, lab chiefs, learned societies, and funding agencies across the sciences.
Few things focus the attention of the nation's lab chiefs, department chairs, and university administrators more intensely than the risk of losing federal grant dollars.
The public should be better informed about what is actually going on in animal research labs, says Dominic Wells, chair of the Animal Science Group, a special interest group within the U.K.-based U.K.-based Society of Biology
Here's an idea that isn't included in the report: Safety-minded students and postdocs should read Safe Science and bring its informative analysis and useful suggestions to the attention of their lab chiefs, department chairs, deans, and other university officials.
The incidents "have raised very serious questions about the CDC's ability to safeguard properly select agents in its own labs," said subcommittee chair Tim Murphy (R PA), asking whether CDC's description of them as a "wake-up call" is adequate.
