Read this excerpt from "One Flu over the Cuckoo's Nest."
One of the main ideas presented in this passage is
the controversy over whether or not flu research is
safe. What do these paragraphs suggest about the
safety of such research?
Scientists debated creating a killer virus to study in the
lab. In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control proposed
deliberately combining a deadly bird flu virus with a
very contagious human flu virus to understand whether
and how it might cause a worldwide outbreak, or
"pandemic." Scientists said the lab experiments would
help them understand what might already be
happening naturally
But other people thought such research was a terrible
idea. What if these viruses escaped the lab by
mistake? What if a government or terrorist organization
wanted to use the viruses against their enemies?
In 2013, two research groups outside the United States
went ahead and conducted their own experiments. One
group, led by Ron Fouchier of Erasmus University in
O A worldwide ban on dangerous flu research was put
into place in 2012, so the threat of people using flu
viruses to attack others no longer exists.
Since all of the information that could be learned
from such research has already been discovered
scientists no longer need to create new flu viruses.
and therefore the controversy is over.
Although none of the deadly flu viruses made for
research have been used by dangerous people,
since that possibility still exists, the ban on the
research might be important.
The research has already resulted in the deaths of
animals, so people who once thought creating and
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