Vaccines controlled for fear of bioweapons

When Indonesia's health minister stopped sending bird flu viruses to a research laboratory in the US for fear Washington could use them to make biological weapons, Defense Secretary Robert Gates laughed and called it "the nuttiest thing" he'd ever heard.

Yet deep inside an 87-page supplement to United States export regulations is a single sentence that bars US exports of vaccines for avian bird flu and dozens of other viruses to five countries designated "state sponsors of terrorism."

The reason: Fear that they will be used for biological warfare.