Luca Dellanna Profile picture
Mar 29, 2021 21 tweets 6 min read Read on X
MEGA-THREAD OF ALL THE TIMES VIRUS LABS "LOST" DANGEROUS PATHOGENS

1/ SARS is documented to have escaped virus labs multiple times; twice from the same one

2/ The Institut Pasteur lost 2349 vials of SARS and once transported vials on a regular plane breaking protocols

(thread)
(I will post all sources at the end of the thread)
3/ More than 100 US labs with bioterror pathogens had faced federal sanctions for safety violations…

…and regulators allowed them to keep conducting experiments while failing inspections, sometimes for years. Image
4/ "U.S. laboratories reported more than 450 accidents during 2015 through 2019 while experimenting with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens"

"In nearly all reported cases, regulators deemed the breaches serious enough to put workers at risk of becoming infected" Image
5/ Basically, we keep playing the Russian Roulette with viruses, unknowingly to most of the population.
6/ In 2007, leaked wastewater from a virus lab caused cattle to be infected with a disease from the 1967 epidemic . Image
7/ In 2001, anthrax stolen from a federal bioweapons lab killed five people and sickened 17 more. (ht @dwnhogendoorn)
8/ Some virus leaks get discovered very late, after they get the chance to infect dozens in multiple countries. Image
9/ Sometimes, incident investigations are not even able to pinpoint what went wrong, creating the risk that such events repeat indefinitely. Image
9/ These were only some of the known leaks.
Imagine how many more unknown one there are.
10/ I've personally worked on a consulting project for a major pharma company in behavioral mistakes leading to biological contamination (though not re: super-deadly pathogens) and I know how easily a mistake can lead to a leak.
11/ Why would any virus lab manager care, though? Leaks don't seem to materially affect careers
12/ So, even when there are known risks, little seems to be done to mitigate them Image
13/ If your jaw fell in disbelief, you're not the only one.

I'm also horrified by the risks posed by virus labs studying things that can obliterate us.
14/ Yes, virus labs routinely studying deadly pathogens do have some upsides, but their downsides are MASSIVE.

Moreover, is their upside any big?

COVID was sequenced in normal labs.
Also, it wasn't these high-risk labs that invented the vaccine.

What do we need them for, then?
15/ In any case, we should demand INDEPENDENT investigations. Not investigations performed by people whose salary depends on the investigation not revealing any danger, as it happened for the Wuhan lab dailycaller.com/2021/02/16/wuh… Image
17/ To conclude.

Virus labs studying deadly pathogens are risky.
There are hundreds of leaks that the general public knows next to nothing about.
And recently, discussing the possibility of lab leaks seems to have become a taboo.

That's a dangerous path we're heading.
18/ Adding this important point.

Virus labs are only one of the possible sources of outbreaks.

To prevent future pandemics, we must both reduce its sources AND decrease connectivity / improve our response.

Neither is sufficient.
19/ I wonder the extent to which this process puts us at risks – not necessarily "arms race" as in for weapons, but even just competition between labs or even researchers for funding and/or career opportunities

20/ This study is also relevant if confirmed (see the full quoted thread)

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More from @DellAnnaLuca

Jun 2
I recently got a small grant (courtesy of Kanro, Vitalik Buterin's foundation) to produce some educational materials regarding the pandemic response.

These 10 one-pagers are the first batch of educational materials.

Any feedback?

1/10 Image
Some more background about the one-pagers. They are meant for people who are already onboard with the need to properly react to an eventual future pandemic but don't have the vocabulary or examples to explain to others what they can do and why.

2/10 Image
A simple model to understand indoor infection risk

3/10 Image
Read 10 tweets
Apr 20
What do I think an educated society means?

Nothing about graduation rates (literacy rates, yes).

Instead:
– Knowing what matters for society to work well
– Being able to find a value-adding role in society
– Having learned that personal improvement is achievable

Not banal

1/6
1) Knowing what matters for society to work well

Things such as:
– What brings prosperity?
– What did countries that were wealthy and democratic do (or didn't do) that caused them to become poor or totalitarian

Seems banal, but…

2/6
…we only discuss how good it's to be prosperous or democratic without discussing how to get there or how not to fall back to the default state (poverty / absence of rights)

3/6
Read 6 tweets
Apr 8
BEYOND THE CHECKLIST

A problem of many organizations is that they are aware of the needs of employees (impact, recognition, growth, fair salary, etc) but fulfill them as they would with a checklist: let's do this superficially, checked, done.

Some examples (& solutions) ↓

1/8
Example #1: recognition.

Many companies and managers know that employees want recognition.

But they fulfill this need in a very superficial way. With a small internal award, a certificate, etc. Top red flag: it's HR-driven and/or feels cringe.

2/8
The alternative:
– make it personal: it should come from the boss or the boss' boss.
– make it congruent: a moment of recognition followed by a year of no recognition feels (and likely is) fake.

3/8
Read 8 tweets
Oct 5, 2023
Whenever we desire an outcome but not the actions that would make us achieve it, we end up with inaction, busywork, shortcuts, excuses, and, ultimately, frustration.

(a thread of highlights from the first chapter of my book "The Control Heuristic")

1/14 Image
You probably do not have a decision-making problem, but an action-taking one

2/14 Image
Decision-making is not the same as action-taking.
The cortex is mostly responsible for taking decisions, and the ~basal ganglia determines whether we act on our decisions.

3/14 Image
Read 14 tweets
Jun 9, 2023
TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE DELEGATION

1) Minimize the chance of misunderstandings:

Explain:
– what's too little
– what's too much
– common mistakes
2) Explain why you need it done.

Not who asked for it. What it is for. What happens if it's not done. (And what happens if it's not done well enough.)

Tasks whose rationale isn't explained relevantly are done badly and/or at higher emotional cost
3) Pre-empt inaction and failure.

Ask them and yourself:
– Why might they not take action?
– Why might they take action and yet fail?
Read 7 tweets
Jun 9, 2023
Footnotes are my favorite feature of my book Ergodicity (from which the screenshot below is taken).

In fact, there’s plenty of bolded text in the footnotes.

A few examples in this thread. Image
Image
Image
Read 6 tweets

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