The Decision to Publish an Avian H7N1 Influenza Virus Gain-of-Function Experiment

Dr. Simon Wain-Hobson has written an opinion piece (1) questioning the decision of the American Society for Microbiology to publish in the Journal of Virology a paper by Sutton et al. that reports mutations in H7N1 influenza virus associated with airborne transmission in ferrets (2). We, the group of editors constituting an ASM committee that evaluates papers containing potential dual-use research of concern (DURC), provide responses to the three main concerns offered by Dr. Wain-Hobson and explain the rationale underlying the decision to publish this paper. The underlying science.Dr. Wain-Hobson questions the importance of this work given the paucity of human infections with H7N1 influenza virus and the absence of human-to-human transmission of H7N1 strains. There appears to be confusion between the scientific value and rigor of the work and the medical importance of the virus studied. We used standard practice to assess the scientific quality of the Sutton et al. (2) study, which consisted of anonymous review by experts in the field and editorial evaluation of those reviews. The paper was reviewed twice by three senior influenza virologists with ample experience in studies of influenza transmission and pathogenesis. These reviewers concurred that the results were novel, significant, and scientifically sound. Furthermore, the experiments described are consistent with normative and epistemic standards …