this avian influenza virus aquires the capacity for human to human spread, and retained its current virlens, the world could face a pandemic of significant proportions. the risk for public harm to be of unusually high magnitude. the board has published its recommendations to the u.s. government along with its rational. importantly, we pointed out that an international discussion was needed amongst multiple societal components to develop policy on this arena of high consequence durc. i would further note in the few months since the recommendations were released there's an a flurry of u.s. and international meetings to discuss the risks and benefits of these experiments. the research issues and policy consequence are now commonly known in being debated. this continuing global conversation is important for the scientific endeavor and for our biosecurity. in late march 2012, the u.s. government task nsabb with reviewing revised versions of the two original manu scripts. this was coupled with a face-to-face meet toeg the board could hear directly from the investigators about their research. in t