IN THE aftermath of the anthrax letter attacks in the US in 2001, the White House championed a massive effort to create and stockpile drugs and vaccines against potential biological weapons. At the time, many infectious disease researchers voiced concerns that work intended to improve our basic understanding of pathogens would be curtailed in favour of research into countering relatively rare infections that could, nevertheless, be turned into bioweapons.
By 2003, their fears had dissipated as it became clear that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) would be left in charge of dividing up research money. And…
