“One of the ominous concerns on the minds of National Security leaders is the possibility of terrorists smuggling into the U.S. some sort of deadly germ warfare to create a national biohazard, the spread of a virus against which our bodies could not defend.”

-Jim Bakker in Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Researchers in the Netherlands and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are resuming a very controversial plan to take the deadly H5N1 virus and make it easier to transmit to humans.

H5N1, more commonly known as “bird flu,” has killed approximately half the people infected with the virus. The reason there has not been a major outbreak killing millions worldwide is that the virus is difficult to spread from person to person.

The scientists attempting the project claimed the government refusing to allow the research is restricting their academic freedom. Other scientists said the plan was too dangerous and the risk of the virus spreading too great to undertake the project.

The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked academic journals not to print parts of the findings because they believed terrorists could use the information to create a biological weapon from the virus.

Two journals, “Nature” and “Science,” eventually published the information.

The scientists involved said in a letter published in the two journals that security measures have been taken to prevent the virus from escaping and that the study was “essential” for learning how to deal with pandemics.

Professor Robert May of the University of Oxford had issues with the research although he said the people involved were good people.

“They look through rose-colored glasses at the security of the laboratories,” May said.