The case for using animals in medical research

Ground zero in the fight against Zika is now at the National Institutes of Health in suburban Washington. NIH scientists are testing a vaccine that could prevent people from acquiring the virus. Trials of a similar vaccine successfully immunized monkeys. Good news, right? Apparently not. Earlier this month, at another NIH facility just 3 miles away, a different group of scientists gathered to debate whether it's appropriate to conduct medical research — like the kind that's delivered this promising Zika vaccine — in primates at all. The NIH workshop on Sept. 7 convened experts in science, policy, ethics and animal welfare and was conducted, in part, in response to congressional interest in reviewing how research is conducted. That question shouldn't even need to be asked. Research in nonhuman primates has been essential to the development of cures for everything from polio to forms of cancer. And it's our best hope for cures for modern scourges like Zika, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.