Thread by @Ayjchan

An interview I did with @NathanJRobinson @curaffairs
"we have to start taking into account new risks & new sources of outbreaks. To not take steps to address this.. would be to put millions of lives at risk.. the old risks are real & so are the new risks"
currentaffairs.org/2022/01/how-di…

@NathanJRobinson @curaffairs On the gain of function debate, @NathanJRobinson pointed out that "someone’s gonna be proven right, and someone’s gonna be proven wrong... it’s the argument that some people have been making half their lives. So it’s all wrapped up in their identity."

I believe the above is the reason why, even though we can all broadly agree that the Covid-19 pandemic might've started due to a lab accident, so few public measures have been taken to make pathogen research more transparent or safe.

"everyone who does this work, I suspect, does not think that they are going to be the one starting the next pandemic. They’re always like, It’s another lab in a different country that’s setting this pandemic... But when it does happen to you, what do you do at that point?"

I don't want any scientists to be put in this position of one day starting a pandemic.

The egos and private communications of a few experts should not be protected and redacted to such a point where all of humanity is put at risk.

I've pressed this point repeatedly:
"we should not be putting this kind of burden on researchers. To have the risk of one person alone causing an accident, and suddenly 100 million people get infected—no one should be doing this type of research."
currentaffairs.org/2022/01/how-di…