Research with variola virus after smallpox eradication: Development of a mouse model for variola virus infection

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. In this issue of PLOS Pathogens, Hutson and coworkers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA describe a study with infectious variola virus that was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research (ACVVR). Since such research is controversial, the editors felt that readers might appreciate the following background information. PLoS Pathog 17(9): e1009911. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009911 About the Authors: Bernard Moss Roles Writing – original draft * E-mail: bmoss@nih.gov Affiliation: Laboratory of Viral Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2154-8564 Geoffrey L. Smith Roles Writing – review & editing Affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom