"[L]et’s stipulate that pandemics can result from natural spillovers or from laboratory accidents—and then let’s move along to implications."
"Should scientists be fiddling with pathogenic genomes, to measure out the steps they’d have to take before ascending to pandemic-level virulence?"
"Should the NIH be funding them?"
(Answers: No and No.)
"Should coronavirus samples gathered from the wild be studied at [low] biosafety levels, as appears to have been the case at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
(Answer: No.)
"Is there any significant cost, in terms of preparing for the next pandemic, from slowing down surveillance work with more demanding safety regulations?
(Answer: No.)
"Or we might be due for a far more substantial inquiry into the risks of scientific research."
(Answer: Yes.)
"'There’s a possibility of a lab escape,' [Michael] Imperiale told me, and we should act on it, no matter what. 'We don’t want to be asking these same questions again 10 years from now.'"
"At this point, calls for further investigation [without concurrent changes in biosafety, biosecurity, and and biorisk-assessment policies] are as likely to become an instrument of delay as of persuasion."
Irrespective of whether COVID-19 originated in a natural accident or a lab accident, the risk of a future pandemic originating in a lab accident is real.
The press and policy makers urgently need to direct attention to the inadequacy of biosafety and biosecurity standards worldwide and the essentially complete absence of biosafety regulation worldwide.
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"Today, there are nearly 60 maximum containment facilities..planned, under construction, or in operation around the world..[H]alf have been established
in the last decade. This means potential risks are proliferating. "
"Work with high-risk pathogens carries substantive safety risks to laboratory workers, the wider society, and the environment. A lab worker may be accidentally infected by a pathogen, causing disease in the individual, and potentially also in..the wider community."
"A pathogen may also be accidentally released directly into the environment through a lab containment breach, leading to potential spread of disease in the community."
Fauci: "[C]onsider..hypothetical scenario:..gain-of-function experiment involving a virus with..pandemic potential is performed..by experienced investigators, but..information..is..used by another scientist who does not have..same training and facilities"
Fauci" "[W]hat if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?"
Fauci: “Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario–however remote–should the initial experiments have been performed in the first place..? I have said that the benefits of such experiments..outweigh the risks."
"The search for answers about the origins of Covid-19 has focused global attention on a corner of science that previously operated far from public view. Known as 'gain of function', the research involves manipulating pathogens..to make them more lethal."
"Critics say the risk of the pathogens escaping and sparking a pandemic is too great"
"Irrespective of whether the Covid-19 pandemic was a result of a lab leak, the very fact that such an outcome is plausible means this is a category of research we should not have been funding or helping to carry out,"
"Biden took an important *but limited* step Wednesday toward a genuine investigation into the origins of covid..He issued..order directing..intelligence agencies to 'redouble..efforts' to look into..two competing hypotheses about..source of the pandemic"
"But this represents just one aspect of a growing U.S. government and congressional effort to finally try — as best we can — to get to the bottom of how the pandemic started."
"Biden’s officials..insist Biden himself always believed the lab accident theory was plausible and needed investigation. Even so, there’s concern on Capitol Hill that the White House may use the new investigation to thwart several ongoing inquiries by lawmakers."
"The turning point, ironically, was the 'press conference' on 9 February in Wuhan where a team of western scientists representing the WHO sat meekly through a 3-hour propaganda session at the end of a 12-day study tour." spectator.co.uk/article/the-co…
"Strictly chaperoned throughout, the western scientists (approved by..Chinese government) had mainly listened to presentations by their Chinese colleagues during their visit and done no research themselves. Yet the result was presented..the world as if it was..WHO’s conclusion."
"So risible was this little stage play that even WHO’s director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had to backtrack a few days later..The governments of Britain, America and 12 other countries issued a joint statement expressing 'shared concerns' over the study."
"Many threads of investigation are available in US and would be accessible to a Congressional inquiry with subpoena power..But only congressional Democrats hold that power—and they show no intention of using it."
"Of course, the Biden administration could release the intelligence in its possession and direct its agencies to answer legitimate congressional inquiries right now — but it hasn’t."
"US government agencies are ignoring or resisting congressional attempts to seek answers."