Index Investing News
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Index Investing News
No Result
View All Result

Ensure that lab-grown viruses do not get a chance to escape

by Index Investing News
October 20, 2022
in Opinion
Reading Time: 6 mins read
A A
0
Home Opinion
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Researchers at Boston University sparked alarming headlines this week by creating a more lethal version of the Omicron variant of covid. At the heart of the uproar is the fact that they didn’t have any obligation to inform anyone beyond an internal review board about what they were doing. Some officials at the US National Institutes of Health only heard about the research through the media.

Another recent development could prove even more concerning: Nature reported plans for 40 new virology labs around the world. Known as BSL-4 labs, designed to deal with the most dangerous pathogens, they’re being built in India, Singapore, the Philippines, Kazakhstan and Russia, among other countries. The ostensible aim is to make us safer, but even before covid, some virologists saw these BSL-4 labs as a problem—the germ equivalent of nuclear proliferation. Scientific research clearly needs to be balanced with public safety.

The issue of lab safety got politicized by the pandemic, as the political right has been more likely to favour the possibility that Sars-CoV-2 originated from a lab accident in China (only truly fringe conspiracy theorists say it was a deliberate leak). People on the left have been more likely to insist that the virus jumped from bats to humans, perhaps via another animal. So far, I don’t think there has been enough evidence to tell us definitively where it came from. But regardless of covid’s origin, the best way to prevent the next pandemic is to increase precautions around all potential avenues, whether that’s wet markets, bat guano collection, or research labs.

In the Boston University’s research case, there seems to be a grey area about how much detail they were obligated to report to government funding agents. Even if they followed existing guidelines to the letter, though, we need clearer rules for researchers and stronger oversight to make sure the risks inherent in live-virus research don’t outweigh the potential benefits.

The debate has also put ‘gain of function’ research back in an unflattering spotlight. That term isn’t well defined, but generally refers to research that alters viruses to change what they’re capable of doing. Such experiments have been very controversial, including an endeavour to create bird flu viruses that can be transmitted between mammals, attempts to alter bat coronaviruses to infect human cells, and experiments aimed at finding new possible iterations of Sars-CoV-2. But ‘gain of function’ might also describe techniques that use altered viruses to deliver gene therapy to treat cancer and hereditary diseases. With such a broad definition, it’s not feasible or in the public’s best interest to ban all gain-of-function research. One solution could be to have a body like the Office of Science and Technology Assessment to judge whether experiments using live viruses are safe enough. That’s something Rutgers University biologist Richard Ebright suggested to me last year. That way, independent experts can weigh the risks and benefits of research with public safety as the overriding goal.

It’s possible that more oversight could slow down valuable research. Where does necessary transparency end and micromanaging begin? We need a balance between research speed, public safety and transparency when dealing with the modification of live viruses. More oversight needn’t bog down our understanding of the current pandemic. Many experiments can be done with so-called pseudo viruses, which use key structures from real viruses but don’t have the ability to replicate. These were important in work that was done quickly to understand the Omicron variant when it emerged last year—work that probably saved many lives by showing that the mRNA vaccines could still protect people against this variant if they got a booster shot.

Unexpected things can go wrong when scientists work with dangerous viruses and bacteria. Accidents and even deliberate leaks have happened in the past. Purdue University virologist David Sanders once told me that he’d been on a team inspecting a lab called Vector in Siberia where there had been a 2004 Ebola leak that killed a worker, and a suspected 1977 leak of a previously extinct flu strain, which later spread worldwide. The movie and book The Hot Zone is based on a true story about a deadly relative of Ebola cropping up in a primate facility in Virginia in 1989. Or consider the anthrax attacks that took place in 2001 in the wake of 9/11. The US bio-defence community assumed it must be the work of foreign terrorists. But it turned out the attacks were carried out by an American scientist who worked in a high-security lab.

Blind trust in scientists isn’t pro-science. Scientists can have motives other than public interest, including producing high-impact publications to boost their careers. And sometimes, even with the best of intentions, they make mistakes.

Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering science.

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.

More
Less



Source link

Tags: ChanceEnsureEscapelabgrownviruses
ShareTweetShareShare
Previous Post

Book Review: Demographics Unravelled | CFA Institute Enterprising Investor

Next Post

Sustainability is good for business as well as the planet

Related Posts

Use verifiable credentials to grant us company over our digital knowledge

Use verifiable credentials to grant us company over our digital knowledge

by Index Investing News
May 13, 2025
0

Again within the day, all we needed to depend on had been paper information. After we visited a physician, we...

Psych Meds And Veblen Items – FREEDOMBUNKER

Psych Meds And Veblen Items – FREEDOMBUNKER

by Index Investing News
May 13, 2025
0

Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker through The Epoch Instances (emphasis ours),CommentaryIn highschool in West Texas within the late Nineteen Seventies,...

Don’s well being care transparency repair, Hochul punts on spending cuts and different commentary

Don’s well being care transparency repair, Hochul punts on spending cuts and different commentary

by Index Investing News
May 13, 2025
0

Well being desk: Don’s Well being Care Transparency Repair President Trump’s “government order requiring ‘radical’ healthcare value transparency,” cheer Arthur...

Dems’ migrant stunts show AGAIN they suppose they’re above the regulation

Dems’ migrant stunts show AGAIN they suppose they’re above the regulation

by Index Investing News
May 12, 2025
0

Democrats throughout the nation have main bother following that “nobody is above the regulation” principle they hold invoking — as...

How a producing increase might assist India shut the gender hole

How a producing increase might assist India shut the gender hole

by Index Investing News
May 12, 2025
0

The Donald Trump administration’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs on a number of American buying and selling companions is inflicting a...

Next Post
Sustainability is good for business as well as the planet

Sustainability is good for business as well as the planet

Danny Masterson Lawyer Aims To Shred Credibility of Jane Doe #1 In L.A. Rape Trial – Deadline

Danny Masterson Lawyer Aims To Shred Credibility of Jane Doe #1 In L.A. Rape Trial – Deadline

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECOMMENDED

Topol, icon of Fiddler on the Roof, dead at 87

Topol, icon of Fiddler on the Roof, dead at 87

March 9, 2023
Indonesian doctors act on tell-tale signs of family violence — Global Issues

Indonesian doctors act on tell-tale signs of family violence — Global Issues

August 27, 2023
Walt Disney Co weighs options for struggling TV business in India

Walt Disney Co weighs options for struggling TV business in India

July 12, 2023
Geopolitics is the biggest threat to globalisation

Geopolitics is the biggest threat to globalisation

November 1, 2022
Should You Add Manufactured Homes To Your Portfolio?

Should You Add Manufactured Homes To Your Portfolio?

February 21, 2023
Micro Ether Futures: Hedge NFTs Utilizing Ethereum Futures

Micro Ether Futures: Hedge NFTs Utilizing Ethereum Futures

August 1, 2022
Statistics are not about what they reveal, but what they conceal

Statistics are not about what they reveal, but what they conceal

December 3, 2023
Automatic Data Processing: Global Leader In Human Capital Management (NASDAQ:ADP)

Automatic Data Processing: Global Leader In Human Capital Management (NASDAQ:ADP)

October 25, 2023
Index Investing News

Get the latest news and follow the coverage of Investing, World News, Stocks, Market Analysis, Business & Financial News, and more from the top trusted sources.

  • 1717575246.7
  • Browse the latest news about investing and more
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • DMCA
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • xtw18387b488

Copyright © 2022 - Index Investing News.
Index Investing News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World
  • Investing
  • Financial
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion

Copyright © 2022 - Index Investing News.
Index Investing News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In