Open Access News

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Friday, May 26, 2006

World Health Assembly may require OA to avian flu data

David Brown, Bird Flu Fears Ignite Debate on Scientists' Sharing of Data, Washington Post, May 25, 2006. (Thanks to Eric Kansa.) Excerpt:
As fears of an influenza pandemic grow, a struggle has emerged between experts who believe the latest genetic data on the H5N1 bird flu virus should be made public immediately and others who fear that such a policy would alienate the countries collecting virus samples and the scientists analyzing them. The issue may come to a head this week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, the governing body of the World Health Organization. Health ministers from more than 190 countries will consider a resolution that would require them to provide flu data and virus samples to the scientific community "in a timely manner."...

WHO supports the change....Without guarantees [of credit], scientists and clinicians may be unwilling to hand over virus samples or collect them in the first place, Margaret Chan, WHO’s director of pandemic influenza planning, said recently.

Critics of the current system say the possibility of global catastrophe trumps any concern about hurt feelings or career advancement.

"Science just moves more rapidly when you share the data openly," said Steven L. Salzberg, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland and a leader of the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project at the National Institutes of Health. He said the chief fear is that one researcher will expropriate another’s hard-earned data before the first can produce a scientific paper. "It will happen, I can’t deny it," he said. "But the problem is that when you take that attitude with a public health matter, then you’re essentially putting your scientific goals ahead of matters of the public." But the resistance to sharing data may wane as the specter of a pandemic grows.

Comment. I strongly support the OA mandate under consideration at the World Health Assembly. For background, see my April article on OA to avian flu data.