Coronavirus sequence trove sparks frustration
Abstract
With more than 700,000 genomes from more than 160 countries, GISAID is by far the world's largest database of SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Access to the free, nonprofit repository has become vital to thousands of scientists and public health agencies as they race to track the pandemic coronavirus' alarmingly rapid evolution. But a dozen scientists interviewed by Science raised alarms about the independent organization's management. They reported an opaque process of gaining access, unexplained interruptions once access is won, and phone harangues or threatening legal letters when they got on the wrong side of GISAID's strict rules against resharing data. Many trace what they view as a secretive, controlling organizational culture to GISAID's co-creator and head, former Time Warner studio executive Peter Bogner.
- Publication:
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Science
- Pub Date:
- March 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.371.6534.1086
- Bibcode:
- 2021Sci...371.1086W
- Keywords:
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- SCI COMMUN; EPIDEMIOLOGY