
US Government tries to restrict publication of details on avian flu virus - Anon84
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/12/us-government-tries-to-restrict-publication-of-details-on-avian-flu-virus-that-spreads-among-mammals.ars
======
kevinalexbrown
While censorship _can_ slow the spread of "evil ideas", as with nuclear
weapons, attempts like these miss the fundamental cause, and stops education
on how to deal with a potential biological attack. The childish example
analogy is Dark Arts in Harry Potter: "Professor, how can we defend against
the dark arts if we don't know what they are?"

What bothers me is a tendency to segregate knowledge into "too dangerous for
citizen consumption" and "certified innocuous". Segregations like these don't
just keep people out of the know - they have the perverse effect of stunting
growth on those within the special circle [1], as people in the know write off
anyone without their clearance level as incompetent, or lacking sufficient
knowledge to make an informed decision.

[1] [http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-
ellsberg-...](http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-ellsberg-
limitations-knowledge)

------
Joakal
These restrictions remind of ITAR. Building a rocket for a hobby? Never talk
to foreigners about it, lest they make nuclear rockets. If that doesn't faze
you, remember that USA almost stopped ecommerce because of ITAR banning export
of cryptography that was once declare a munition. Because they didn't want
foreigners to have access to encryption research.

What will happen is that honest people will follow the government and suffer
from lack of potential discoveries while foreigners have their own avian flu
virus studies, including 'mutations' that the US Government can be unprepared
for.

~~~
crag
This super virus was created simply cause the "scientists" could. What, they
gonna learn infection rates from ferrets?

Personally I would destroy the virus and hope everyone forgets about it. Not
because I'm afraid of terrorists- I'm afraid of it getting out.

~~~
nextparadigms
I would normally agree with you, but on the other hand I'm even more afraid of
Governments creating stuff like this in secret, and then doing who knows what
with them. Open science is probably the way to go.

------
Mvandenbergh
To be clear: this is a request to the journals, the journals haven't decided
what to do with it yet.

