8/Apri1/85
TO: Members of the human retrovirus subcommittee of the Retrovirus Study Group.
Now that the composition of our group is clear, I would urge each of you to consider submitting specific proposals and to elicit proposals from other interested and informed parties. Since public concern with this issue is rather high (compared with its interest in matters usually in the purview of the ICTV), I would ask that all proposals be submitted by May 1st - May 15th at the latest.  (This extension represents a compromise with reality since I'll be out of the country until May 12th.)  At that point I will circulate all the proposals for comment and consider the necessity and options for discussion - e.g. by conference calls among selected individuals with opposing views.
Please attempt to have proposals conform to the goals and format outlined in my earlier mailing, One of our members - Max Essex - has suggested the possibility of proposing names for viruses of non-human primates related to the leukemia-lymphoma and AIDS viruses of man. I think this could work quite well, and I invite further comments and proposals.
Sincerely,
Harold E. Varmus, M.D.
American Cancer Society
Professor of Molecular Virology