Read this excerpt from "One Flu over the Cuckoo's Nest."


Scientists debated creating a killer virus to study in the lab. In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control proposed deliberately combining a deadly bird flu virus with a very contagious human flu virus to understand whether and how it might cause a worldwide outbreak, or "pandemic.” Scientists said the lab experiments would help them understand what might already be happening naturally. . . .


But other people thought such research was a terrible idea. What if these viruses escaped the lab by mistake? What if a government or terrorist organization wanted to use the viruses against their enemies?


In 2013, two research groups outside the United States went ahead and conducted their own experiments. One group, led by Ron Fouchier of Erasmus University in the Netherlands, showed that the highly lethal mixed up flu virus could infect and kill ferrets. A few months later, a Chinese group led by Chen Hualan at China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute showed the recombined virus could infect and kill guinea pigs. Both groups ran their studies before a worldwide ban on this type of research was put into place in 2012.


One of the main ideas presented in this passage is the controversy over whether or not flu research is safe. What do these paragraphs suggest about the safety of such research?


A) A worldwide ban on dangerous flu research was put into place in 2012, so the threat of people using flu viruses to attack others no longer exists.

B) Since all of the information that could be learned from such research has already been discovered, scientists no longer need to create new flu viruses, and therefore the controversy is over.

C)Although none of the deadly flu viruses made for research have been used by dangerous people, since that possibility still exists, the ban on the research might be important.

D) The research has already resulted in the deaths of animals, so people who once thought creating and researching new flu viruses was important are no longer supporting it.