Human-Made Pandemic
It is only a matter of time before one of these pathogens escapes somewhere - Alina Chan, molecular biologist, MIT
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image by: UNMEER
HWN Suggests
Why experts are terrified of a human-made pandemic — and what we can do to stop it
Terrorist groups engaged in biological terrorism — like the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which launched a botched bioattack in Japan in 1993 — have so far largely been unable to improve on anthrax, a naturally occurring pathogen that is deadly to those who inhale it but isn’t contagious and won’t circulate the globe the way a pandemic disease can.
But our ability to engineer viruses has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, thanks in part to the rapidly falling price of DNA sequencing and DNA synthesis technologies. Those advances have opened the door to innovations in medicine, but they also present a challenge: Viruses as deadly and disruptive as Covid-19, or potentially much worse,…
Featured
A natural pandemic has been terrible. A synthetic one would be even worse
Even in the midst of a natural pandemic, the threat of a synthetic pandemic should be at the forefront of the U.S. national security agenda. Here are four steps we believe the country’s leaders need to take.
Genetic engineering: why some fear the next pandemic could be lab-made
US government funding for scientific research that splices deadly viruses to make them more transmissible is under scrutiny amid safety concerns.
Articles of Interest
The COVID-19 lab leak theory highlights a glaring lack of global biosecurity regulation
The United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity puts the onus on individual countries to regulate their own biotech industries. While there are protocols for the safe handling and transfer of living modified organisms, there are still no agreed international standards governing laboratory safety, monitoring and information sharing.
The U.S. Has No Plan to Prevent the Next Pandemic
We treat pandemics as inevitable when we could commit to averting them.
Resources
Manmade viruses being blamed on animals
In the past few years, military researchers have been busy collecting viruses from wild animals, especially bats. They have focused their energies on deadly viruses that have existed in wild animals since centuries.
