Editor's Corner

With the new flu season just ahead, there's a fresh wave of news reports about the possibility of a bird flu pandemic developing. Of course, any expert is quick to point out that no one really knows even the rough chances of H5N1 mutating into a virus that can be easily transmitted from person to person. The reality, nevertheless, is that the world is long overdue for a pandemic. New government funds are helping drive research projects like the one we report on below. And researchers are making real progress in learning new ways to combat viruses and radically more efficient methods for producing vaccines. With more time, the research community will come up with new protections. We hope they get that time. In the meantime, it would be interesting to see if the journalists writing about this topic center solely on the fears, without also covering the research work now underway. - John Carroll