Nature: WHO postpones decision on destruction of smallpox stocks — again
“The stalemate continues over the question of when to destroy the last stocks of the virus that causes smallpox, a killer disease that was eradicated in 1980. One of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) two advisory committees on smallpox supports the stocks’ destruction, and the other opposes it. Last weekend, health ministers of the WHO’s 194 member states again postponed a decision and decided to set up a third WHO smallpox advisory committee in a bid to broker a consensus…” (Butler, 5/28).