Public health crises require bold and innovative solutions. Innovative solutions, however, often require risk-taking, and the public has a right to know what the risks are and whether the risks have been reasonably mitigated. How, then, can we approach the challenges of communicating effectively about the risks of research?

Certain biomedical experiments may be perceived as posing a direct threat to the individual participant or, more broadly, to the public health. Because of such fears, the public, quite naturally, may feel that federal funding should not be used for such research.

Yet banning all risky research is akin to burying one's head in the sand: It does not protect us but instead leaves us vulnerable to threats.