International scientists will resume research in the next few weeks on the deadly bird flu after halting last January. Public outcry erupted after a lab in the Netherlands and one in the U.S. reported they created easier-to-spread versions of the bird flu, the Associated Press reported. 

Researchers agreed to new rules to ensure safety over concern that the research may aid terrorists. The two labs waited to publish their results until last summer when the U.S. government decided the data didn’t pose an immediate terrorism threat. 

From the AP:

A number of countries already have issued new rules. The U.S. is finalizing its own research guidelines, a process that Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said should be completed within several weeks.

In letters published in the journals Science and Nature this week, scientists wrote that those who meet their country's requirements have a responsibility to resume studying how the deadly bird flu might mutate to become a bigger threat to people – maybe even the next pandemic. So far, the so-called H5N1 virus mostly spreads among poultry and other birds and rarely infects people.

"The risk exists in nature already," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Not doing the research is really putting us in danger."

 

Read more of Neon Tommy’s coverage on the bird flu here.

Reach Executive Producer Agnus Dei Farrant here.