I deleted the tweet where I asserted that GOF is a crime against humanity, as it was too inflammatory. Many researchers truly feel that they are trying to do good, and this is not fair to them. I respect @Ryan_Mac_Phd and appreciate his input.
I do maintain serious reservations about this work, because I do not believe that it can be done safely with human/mammalian pathogens outside of BSL-4 containment. Laboratory-acquired infections occur. Human errors happen. The consequences are too high. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
I also have serious concerns about GOF being used as a way to create bioweapons. I feel very strongly about this, as my father was ordered to do bioweapons research in the early 1960s when he was at Fort Dietrich.
Don't think it doesn't happen.
Don't think it doesn't happen.
https://twitter.com/denise_dewald/status/1452046061791551492?s=20
You probably never heard of my father, but if you have ever worked in a lab and ordered bacteria from ATCC that came in a vacuum-sealed ampule, you can credit him. He developed the technique of freeze-drying bacteria under vacuum so they could survive long-term storage.
Getting the bacteria to survive long enough to infect people is a major the problem when you are trying to create a bacteria-based biological weapon. So you see where his research was leading. His commanding officers were ecstatic when he figured this out.
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