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Abstract
While I was suffering from a severe case of the flu this winter, I was desperate for
a suitable remedy. Then I was reminded of Victor Hugo's words: "Those who live are
those who fight."
As the year 2012 draws to a close, it is worth turning our attention to a remarkable
flu fighter, Dr. Ron Fouchier. He is a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and was listed by Nature as one of ten people who mattered
this year.
If you were already familiar with his work on creating a strain of the H5N1 avian
flu virus capable of spreading between mammals, you should be familiar with the dispute
on 'dual-use' research that can be both beneficial to the public when used in good
will and threatening to society if it is misused.
Dr. Fouchier had already obtained his results in 2011 and submitted his paper to Science
in that year, but the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) held
up the publication process because of the study's potential utility for bioterrorism
if the full paper were to be printed, and the NSABB recommended in December 2011 that
the experimental details be redacted. Nevertheless, Dr. Fouchier persistently demanded
comprehensive recognition of his work, and in March of the following year, the NSABB
issued a revised opinion allowing full paper publication.
However, Dr. Fouchier's fight was not done. Even though a similar controversial avian
flu paper by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka was successfully published in Nature this past
May, Dr. Fouchier's work for Science was then obstructed by European Union (EU) legislation
on export controls. This meant that while the NSABB decided Dr. Kawaoka's work no
longer fell under US and Japanese export controls, the Dutch government asserted that
Dr. Fouchier's paper should be controlled by Dutch and EU export controls law 'EC
428/2009.' Because he had expressed the intention of defying the Dutch government
to submit his paper to Science without seeking an export permit, he was threatened
with punishment of up to six years' imprisonment.
Although in the end Dr. Fouchier was able to obtain a permit from the Dutch government
and his paper was released in this June's issue of Science, he is still embroiled
in legal proceedings to contest the rigorous EU export control law itself.
Dr. Fouchier has stated, "If there is anything I can do to prevent future generations
of infectious disease specialists being censored against their will by government,
I will do it." We, as thoughtful scientific researchers, can stand by him, because
protecting the right to freely publish our good work is worth the fight.
Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Periodontal Implant Sci
Journal ID (publisher-id): JPIS
Title:
Journal of Periodontal & Implant Science
Publisher:
Korean Academy of Periodontology
ISSN
(Print):
2093-2278
ISSN
(Electronic):
2093-2286
Publication date
(Print):
December
2012
Publication date
(Electronic):
31
December
2012
Volume: 42
Issue: 6
Pages: 183-184
Affiliations
Department of Periodontology, Seoul National University School of Dentistry, Seoul,
Korea.
Author notes
Correspondence: Tae-Il Kim. Editor-in-Chief. Department of Periodontology, Seoul National
University School of Dentistry, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-749, Korea.
periopf@
123456snu.ac.kr
, Tel: +82-2-2072-2642, Fax: +82-2-744-1349