AMSTERDAM -The Dutch government gave virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus MC an export license for its H5N1 transmissibility controversial study, allowing Fouchier to send a revised manuscript of his paper science .
The license "is in my inbox," says Fouchier. "Now we can go."
The decision by Henk Bleker, Minister for Agriculture and Foreign Trade was announced this afternoon in a press release (in Dutch) posted on the ministry's website. It comes four days after a closed meeting in the Hague, where government officials have discussed the risks and the benefits of research with an international group of scientists and security experts According to today's statement.
Minister Bleker weighed the benefits and risks of publishing research on avian influenza, and has mostly looked the freedom of research and publication, health and safety. It also took into consideration the ideas of national and international experts in the fields of safety, health and research; the positive opinion of the US National scientific Advisory Board on biosecurity [NSABB] for the government of the United States about the publication of research; and the US government decision to follow this advice.
Fouchier was fiercely opposed to an application for an export license, which he says is an inappropriate tool to control the flow of scientific information. He eventually filed the permit while disputing the obligation to do so.
Fouchier said he is "pleased but not surprised" by the decision. "It would be strange" if the government had held up publication after NSABB and a group of experts from the World Health Organization recommended publication, Fouchier said. The Rotterdam Lab will not break the champagne until the paper actually comes out, he said. "Then let's have a party."
Bleker also sent a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives today (Dutch) in which it promised to inform the House about the results of the meeting Monday at the latest on May 16
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