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for the information in one of the manuscripts to be immediately and directly enabling. He stated; "I am an influenza virologist myself, and we routinely create viral mutants in my lab using reverse genetics, so I have a good sense of the technical issues involved. As such, I can recognize that some outspoken researchers in our field have been under-representing the increased risk that would be entailed by full publication of the specific mutations versus the current situation where only the general outline of the ferret-passage scheme is known. A ferret-passage experiment is expensive and technically demanding, and could only be done by a handful of labs in the world. Once the mutations are public, individuals in my lab (or many other labs) could generate the mutants in a few weeks given several thousand dollars for gene synthesis. I remain agnostic about what is the best policy going forward. I recognize that there also important potential benefits from this research, and think that research along these lines does have valid scientific and public-health justifications. But these benefits need to be carefully weighed against the real risks, and I am definitely concerned that there has been a rush to judgment for full publication within our own research community." I have talked with many similarly minded influenza researchers from around the world who agree with the above statement. Yet these voices were notably absent in the NSABB deliberations. The data may benefit public health and surveillance efforts. The Board received no formal or informal presentation from those on the front lines of H5N1 animal surveillance and control. Specifically, no one with H5N1 virus surveillance and control expertise from either the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) or the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) were invited to participate. I have discussed with officials from both organizations the implications of sharing the mutation data; the general response indicated that such information without major new resources and government commitment to active animal surveillance and control would not fundamentally change current surveillance and control practices in most of the endemic H5N1 countries. Yet, there was a series of very general and unsubstantiated statements made by others invited to the meeting who are not involved in the day-to-day animal surveillance activities in the H5N1 endemic countries (including the authors) as to the benefits of making the mutational data available for this purpose.