Could #COVID19 Have Escaped from a Lab? bostonmagazine.com/news/2020/09/0… Is the way this question is being dealt with science or censorship?
There’s long been a sense that if the public and politicians really knew about the dangerous pathogen research being conducted in many labs, they’d be outraged. Denying the possibility of a catastrophic incident like this, then, could be seen as a form of career preservation.
“For the substantial subset of virologists who perform gain-of-function research, avoiding restrictions on research funding, avoiding implementation of appropriate #biosafety standards, and avoiding implementation of appropriate research oversight are powerful motivators.”
It quickly amounted to global gaslighting of the media—and by proxy the public. An unhealthy absolutism set in: Either you insisted that any questions about lab involvement were absurd, or you were a tool of the Trump administration & its desperation to blame China for the virus.
@Ayjchan: “I hope the pandemic motivates local ethics and #biosafety committees to think carefully about how they can reduce risk.”
“I’d also—personally—prefer if high biosafety level labs were not located in the most populous cities on earth.”
“I’d also—personally—prefer if high biosafety level labs were not located in the most populous cities on earth.”
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