Public Science, Public Access [Editorial]
Science and Technology Librarianship
2006/06/06
Advocates for open access to the scientific literature were heartened recently by the surprising introduction of a Senate bill that would require most recipients of federal research funds to make their findings freely available within six months of publication.
The "Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006" would expand and add teeth to the watered-down NIH policy which has been ignored by the vast majority of life scientists since its introduction in 2005. FRPAA is even more remarkable given that its co-sponsor, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), is otherwise known for an aggressive pro-business stance.
Brian Crawford, a vice president of the American Chemical Society, mouthed this ludicrous statement in an AAP press release: "Americans have easy access to scientific and medical literature through public libraries, state universities, existing private-sector online databases, as well as through their professional, academic, or business affiliations, [and] low-cost online individual article sales." While this absurd claim won't fool anybody with real-life experience, these and other inaccurate sound bites could be swallowed whole by politicians and policy makers inclined to oppose government intervention.
Top Officials Meeting on Bird Flu Strategy in Vienna
USINFO.STATE.GOV
2006/06/05
Two-day Meeting Will Plan for Avian Influenza Containment
Washington -- A high-level meeting of officials involved in the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza is being held in Vienna, Austria, June 6-7.
The government of Austria, on behalf of the European Union, hosts the meeting jointly with the United States.
The conference will involve experts in animal and human health from governments and major international organizations who are playing an important role in fighting the avian influenza pandemic, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 200 million birds through disease or destruction.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 causing this more than two-year-old plague among animals is also capable of infecting humans; 127 known human deaths have been attributed the disease, according to the World Health Organization. Humans have no immunity to this viral strain, so experts fear H5N1 could form the seed of global pandemic influenza.
The Vienna meeting will review global progress in pandemic preparedness and response, examine the status of donor funding, pursue action for greater transparency in reporting of disease, and explore progress on drug and vaccine development, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Department of State.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry added that there will be a review of the finances of this international campaign.
Agencies Hope an Eagle Eye Can Help Spot Bioterrorism
chron.com
2006/06/03
D'Vera Cohn
Outbreaks of Animal Diseases Could be Warnings of an Attack or Pandemic
A growing number of scientists and government agencies are engaged in projects to track outbreaks of animal disease that could give a warning of a bioterrorism attack, modeled on the proverbial canary that alerted coal miners to poisons in the air.
They include officials at the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, Va., who announced last month that they received an Air Force grant to design a national bioterrorism surveillance network that would link data from two dozen North American wildlife hospitals.
The center's president, Ed Clark, said it would be "the bird dog out in front trying to get a whiff of what's going on."
A simple example, he said, would be that ducks dying at a reservoir could signal an attempt to poison the water supply.
In another effort, the Canary Database at Yale University has assembled thousands of scientific articles on links between wildlife and human health.
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