Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
In 1959, von Magnus represented Denmark at the 1959 Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, where he explained that respiratory viruses such as influenza and the common cold were unsuitable as biological weapons as they rarely produced severe effects and were already common among human populations, resulting in some level of immunity. He warned however, that such viruses were stable and easily cultured and therefore the emergence of a new virus with a more serious impact, through mutation or deliberate cultivation, could not be ruled out.