Unnoticed Amendment Bans Synthesis of Smallpox Virus.

The article reports that by adding a last-minute amendment to a massive intelligence reform bill, Representative Pete Sessions has made it illegal for most U.S. researchers to synthesize the smallpox virus, variola, from scratch. Some virologists said that the law is ambiguous on what exactly is banned, and it could be interpreted to include some research on closely related poxviruses. By international agreement, only two labs in the world, one in Russia and one in the United States, can store and study variola.