The WHO has granted the smallpox virus another last-minute reprieve. Fears
over bioterrorism have already prompted the US to resist plans to destroy
remaining official stocks (This Week, 1 May, p 12). Last week, WHO member states
voted to appoint a new scientific panel to decide what research is still needed
to develop vaccines and antiviral drugs. The panel has until 2002 to set
another, final date for destruction. The stocks were due to have been destroyed
in 1993, and again in 1995, but each time scientists pleaded that they needed to
continue studying them.
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