In a editorial, 3 years ago, Marc Lipsitch (2014) blasted certain types of virus research as too risky. My immediate gut reaction was that Prof. Lipsich was unduly scaring the public by overstating the risks. Upon further reflection, I’ve come to the opinion that Prof. Lipsitch’s concerns may well be justified. Based on the articles by Lipsitch (2014) and Wahlberg (2014) answer the following two questions:

• (a) What are the benefits and the risks of this research?
• (b) Do you feel this research should go forward (and why)?