A group of flu scientists and health officials want to end secrecy over avian flu data. The group says some scientists and governments are keeping flu data hidden. The GLRC’s
Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A group of flu scientists and health officials want to end secrecy over avian flu data. The
group says some scientists and governments are keeping flu data hidden. The GLRC’s
Lester Graham reports:
Some data on avian flu outbreaks are restricted by governments, or kept private within small
groups of researchers, or the information hoarded for years by scientists who want to be
the first to publish in academic journals, according to correspondence published online by
the journal Nature.
Seventy top flu scientists and health officials propose sharing all data through what
they’re calling the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data. The consortium
and its data will be open to all scientists provided they agree to share their own research.
Any articles published in academic journals would have to credit the use of other
researchers’ data. The idea is to more quickly allow scientists and health officials world-
wide to better understand how avian flu viruses spread and evolve before they reach
pandemic levels.
For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.