Reply to “The 1977 H1N1 Influenza Virus Reemergence Demonstrated Gain-of-Function Hazards”
Year: 2015
Type: letter
Abstract: We thank Martin Furmanski for his interest in our article (1)concerning the unnatural origins of the 1977 H1N1 influ-enza virus strain. In his Letter to the Editor, he challenges our assertion that to date, there has been no real-world example of a laboratory accident that has led to a global epidemic, and he states that we ourselves concluded that the virus “originated in a micro-biology laboratory and its release was unintentional, ” to which he added that “which laboratory is responsible matters little in the GoF debate ” (2). This is a mischaracterization of our findings. Whilewe found that the strain did indeed have a laboratory origin, the actual release of the virus was likely the result of administering an inappropriately attenuated vaccine or challenge strain to thou-sands of Chinese soldiers and was likely not the effect of a single escape from a laboratory. While the science behind why some viruses take off to become epidemics and others do notmay still be incompletely understood, the 1977 epidemic most likely had a
Source: mBio
Authors: Michelle Rozo, Gigi Kwik Gronvall
Institution: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,900
OpenAlex ID: W2179346657