Reading Room Production — page 364

From: "Kerr, Lawrence D." HE @0stp.c0p.gov> To: "Fauci, Anthony (NIH/NIAID)" <AFAUCI@niaid.nih.gov> Subject: RE: New Scientist: US develops lethal new viruses Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 15:57:45 -0500 Importance: Normal Thank you. We had a very good talk with Mark and St. Louis University's communications team. I articulated the points you made and they were planning to have talking points ready for Mark when he spoke to the AP person. Kathryn Harrington here in OSTP was going to call the editor of the New Scientist and discuss the lop-sided nature of their piece and see if they would print a correction. I guess we'll see how the news reports look tomorrow. Larry -----Original Message----- From: Fauci, Anthony (NIH/NIAID) [mailto:AFAUCI@niaid.nih.gov] Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 3:52 PM To: Kerr, Lawrence D. Subject: FW: New Scientist: US develops lethal new viruses Larry: FYI: Tony anna Original Message----- From: Fauci, Anthony (NIH/NIAID) Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 3:37 PM To: 'Falkenrath, Richard' Subject: RE: New Scientist: US develops lethal new viruses Richard: The study of making a mouse poxvirus that has a mouse IL-4 gene inserted was funded through an NIAID contract to the investigator Mark Buller. The contact was let to evaluate vaccine and antiviral candidates. The purpose of the work in question was to confirm the already published study by the Australians and to develop an animal model to determine ways to counter the heightened virulence of the mouse poxvirus - mouse IL-4 construct. This could be done by antivirals or by neutralizing the effect of the IL-4 gene, which is the culprit that causes the immune suppression. Tony -----Original Message----- From: Falkenrath, Richard [mailto @who.eop.gov] Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 8:58 AM To: Fauci, Anthony (NIH/NIAID) Subject: FW: New Scientist: US develops lethal new viruses Tony: Do you happen to know if this is independent research or if it's USG sponsored? RAF US develops lethal new viruses 19:00 29 October 03 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Ascientist funded by the US government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of the smallpox virus, through genetic engineering. The new virus kills all mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them. The work has not stopped there. The cowpox virus, which infects a range of animals including humans, has been genetically altered in a similar way.