Threatened Pandemics and Laboratory Escapes: Self-fulfilling Prophecies 94
Lasrick (2629253) writes "Martin Furmanski, a medical doctor and medical historian, writes of the laboratory escapes of high-consequence pathogens that have occurred in recent decades (including several instances of smallpox!). The article explores 'gain of function" experiments-- experiments in which researchers manipulate dangerous pathogens to increase communicability among humans, and whether the benefit we see from those experiments outweighs the incredible risk. 'Many other laboratory escapes of high-consequence pathogens have occurred, resulting in transmission beyond laboratory personnel. Ironically, these laboratories were working with pathogens to prevent the very outbreaks they ultimately caused. For that reason, the tragic consequences have been called "self-fulfilling prophecies.''"
A dozen primates (Score:4, Funny)
Bruce Willis agrees.
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This can be summed up briefly:
Murphy's Law.
Whatever happenedâ¦. (Score:1)
I used to look forward annually to see what would come outâ¦why did they do away with it?
Seriously, one day of OMG Poniesâ¦was fun and funny.
RIP April Fools on Slashdot.
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RIP April Fools on Slashdot.
Good riddance. Internet turns useless on that particular day.
Better Idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Wouldn't it make more sense to locate these labs in an incredibly isolated area like an island in the middle of the ocean or the Moon? Someplace that CAN be quarantined 100% in the event of a mishap?
Re:Better Idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Better Idea (Score:5, Interesting)
As a counterpoint to this argument, consider the X-Planes of the 50's and 60's; these were all done precisely that way: by attracting the best and brightest to remote locations, cut off from population centers and given a remit to do the best they could. Think the Bell-X1, for example, or Lookheed's A-12 (which became the SR-71).
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As a counterpoint to this argument, consider the X-Planes of the 50's and 60's; these were all done precisely that way: by attracting the best and brightest to remote locations, cut off from population centers and given a remit to do the best they could. Think the Bell-X1, for example, or Lookheed's A-12 (which became the SR-71).
Many of the people involved were in the military and had no say in where they were posted. Qualified employees of military hardware contractors would also be hard pressed to refuse a job on a top secret project... and if they did it's a small pool of people and word gets around if you are not a team player. If you are a bad fit at Lockheed then GD, Hughes, Northrop, Raytheon, et al., would also question your viability. In the end I doubt many people had to be "attracted", they were just sent.
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Yeah! Nuclear and Chemical weapons get all the rage these days. It is time that the "B" in the NBC gets some love!
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You don't want the best and brightest. You want the best and brightest who are driven enough by their passion to move to BFE.
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Madagascar is quite impossible to spread the virus due to only having a port, but its also useless for vaccine research. Have you noticed that it got no hospitals?
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An island is hardly isolated; something airborne could possibly make it to land or be carried by migratory birds.
The moon is an interesting idea; however consider the consequences of a rocket explosion during takeoff. Or, even more horrifying, consider the consequence of rocket failure and the payload crashing on to a populated area.
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They tried that with the Plum Island Animal Disease Center -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Island_Animal_Disease_Center
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The problem is that these viruses are designed to get around things like this. A researcher becomes infected and no one necessarily knows for 3 weeks. Assuming these researchers are allowed to come home from the moon ever, there is still a risk.
And in the case it ever escapes simply into the quarantined lab, you have to assume that these infected scientists are entirely capable or panicking and breaking quarantine. When you are talking about deadly viruses, capable of destroying civilization, you have to as
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Or years in the case of someone I know that got tuberculosis in a lab. However she wasn't working directly with it and doctors could not recognise it until she was examined by a retired doctor who happened to have TB experience.
Re:Better Idea (Score:4, Informative)
BSL4 labs are no joke already. We already spend a lot on the BSL4 facilities themselves, 1.2 billion in 2003 for example. [hpac.com] The safety measures inside are considerable:
When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a positive pressure personnel suit, with a segregated air supply, is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a level four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a biosafety level 4 (or P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
wiki [wikipedia.org]
Diseases that are out there in the wild, it seems stupid to suggest there's more of a risk from studying it than dealing with it if it happens. Smallpox, which has been eliminated in the wild and that we have a vaccine for, you could definitely make the case, however there would still be smallpox sources out there. [usatoday.com], it could re-emerge. There is no antiviral drug approved for smallpox. [wikipedia.org] If we get wind that someone is making a smallpox bomb, or if it re-emerges naturally, we'd probably want to start testing cidofovir or some other drugs ASAP. And sticking all our labs dealing with it in the middle of the ocean is a good way to make sure that's as slow as possible.
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Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time.
And when these labs, often remote, have power failures, how do the doors lock? They don't. They are Fukishima safe - "we'll never lose mains power at the same time as the generators being out". Though it has happened at BSL4 labs before.
All air and water service going to and coming from a biosafety level 4 (or P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Until they violate standards because the amount of water going in and out can't be handles when one of the many devices in the chain of cleaning is out. Yes, that's happened before too.
Standards are great, but as anyone in computers knows, having standards doesn't mean
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I've set up a BSL4 lab, the door strikes are supposed to be Fail Secure, so that when power to the strike fails the door stays locked. Power needs to be supplied to the strike to unlock it. They require a waiver from the local fire marshal before installation, since there is no escape in the case of a fire that causes a loss of power. You're thinking of Fail Safe doors that unlock when the power fails, they are required for most stairwells and exits.
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And when these labs, often remote, have power failures, how do the doors lock? They don't.
Are you saying this based on some source or are you just assuming there's no contingency plans because the wikipedia page I linked to doesn't specifically mention them? You appear to be arguing the plan as summarized by wikipedia is inadequate. Definitely. That's why it's not used as the standard (hopefully.)
Standards are great, but as anyone in computers knows, having standards doesn't mean adherence to them. You only need to meet them once every audit. And if the lab is government, the inspectors and lab are funded by the same group, so there''s a conflict of interest. What could possibly go wrong?
So, what is the alternative exactly? Shut it down because something MIGHT go wrong despite all odds? Have a non-government organization either audit or run the labs?
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BTW I've been in another high security bunker when power faile
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Do you know of any class 4 labs that have any failure?
If there was, would they be allowed to talk about it?
I've read lots of the conspiracy theories, and they say so. It's not like a hermetic seal is in place, otherwise, why would they be so anal about making sure they are negative pressure facilities? So if the power fails, at least one of the "security measures" is compromised. And no, I've not been in one. They don't allow tours.
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"why would they be so anal about making sure they are negative pressure facilities?"
Can you really not be able to think of a reason?
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That book scared the living crap out of me.
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Check out the book 'Germs' by Judith Miller and others, written in the 1990s. The only book that I have ever read that gave me nightmares. A few years after it was published it was discovered that when Clinton ordered the military to stop all research into creating new bio-weapons the Pentagon ignored their Commander-In-Chief and simply changed the development program names and moved them to the Black Budget. Didn't even move the techs desks.
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. . . and I was thinking that it would be best to put these labs right in the middle of where the anti-vaccination crowds live . . .
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I think this place may be adequate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert [wikipedia.org]
Nothing survives there. In 200 million years, no form of bacteria has been able to evolve to survive in the conditions there. You'd have to use pressurized buildings and carefully controlled climate though.
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Keep in mind the earthquakes in the area, a couple of which exceeded 8 on the Richter scale in the last few years . . .
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It is possible to build a building that will survive even a 9.5 on the Richter Scale.
The point is more, can you situate your lab in a place where even if the microbes escape, they can't survive on their own? The arid nature of the higher points of this desert, in combination with the significantly low pressure atmosphere, make even survival for humans slightly doubtful in places.
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The Atacama is a weird place. Other deserts have cacti and bugs and such. The Atacama has nothing. The only sign of life is an occasional mummified sea bird laying on the surface, with no indication whether it died a month ago or a century ago. Rock fragments that split and fall off lay in a corona around the parent because they never wash away in the rain. There is a slight crust on the top of the sand, like a snow crust, since the sand particles have lain together undisturbed for so long they've bond
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The Soviets located their hottest bio-weapons lab on an island in the Aral Sea. Unfortunately now that the Aral Sea is drying up it's no longer an island . . .
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Wouldn't it make more sense to locate these labs in an incredibly isolated area like an island in the middle of the ocean or the Moon? Someplace that CAN be quarantined 100% in the event of a mishap?
Maybe you could put it near the arctic circle and name it Arctic Biosystems.
Captain Trips!! (Score:4, Informative)
This was the basis for a Stephen King story in 1978, "The Stand".
Also "The Hot Zone" was a non-fictional account of an Ebola outbreak from a lab.
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Don't forget about the Andromeda Strain! (1969)
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Yep. That book came directly out of the program NASA set up to stop any possible contamination from a moon visit.
With time we realized it wasn't needed.
I think the movie is better than the book, BTW.
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Doctors with nukes FFS!
I agree, it was tidied up a bit and less silly.
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This was the basis for a Stephen King story in 1978, "The Stand".
Been a while since I read that one - did he actually go into detail about the origin of the plague, or just leave it at "plague killed most everyone?"
Considering the source, I wouldn't be surprised if he described not only the origin of the plague, but it's shape, texture, coloration, as well as the design of the lab it escaped from, the type of lighting there, what sort of fabric the scientists wore...
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It was a US army base developing a weaponized superflu. From memory, the superflu was more a McGuffin than anything important... it was the cause of societal breakdown that allowed The Devil to come to earth.
However, the characters did have a discussion about what would happen if any of the survivors accidentally opened another one of those labs.
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That's the way in the book too. Damn I hated that guard.
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Those are ordinary prophecies (Score:2)
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Ahhh but it isn't just "labs will release viruses" but that labs particularly worried about really nasty viruses, will create them in order to study the possibility, leading to the very outbreaks they were created to study in hopes of avoiding.
Its not just labs working on viruses, but people being so worried about labs creating plagues that they create labs that create plagues as a result.
This work needs to be in the open (Score:2)
Wouldn't want these folks making a pinky swear when a petri dish of genetically modified super-virus goes missing after they crossed Ebola with the common cold.
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You need to stop watching Big Bang Theory :D
[John]
Offtopic - April 1st joke? (Score:2)
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Yeah, it was annoying. Also, it was HTML5 media player so it wasn't blocked like Flashblock, Mozilla's addon on demand player, etc.
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Yea, my volume is now off on my laptop. Where's the checkbox to disable it?
[John]
Dear new Slashdot (Score:3)
Level 4 Containment (Score:2)
I remember hearing about a Lvl 4 containment site getting concreted with people inside of it.
I can't lay claim to it but i do believe it.
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My understanding is that is a contingency plan, but has never been implemented. A couple of the military bio-weapons labs had pre-installed demolitions charges that would implode the entire underground site into a hole covered by a clay hill, but again they were never set off.
Something that I've always found interesting is that several military-tied medical institutes, such as Battelle and Litton Bionetics, have "cancer research centers" in central Africa.
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I remember hearing about a Lvl 4 containment site getting concreted with people inside of it.
This is an urban legend often associated with Building 470 [wikipedia.org], a facility at Fort Detrick used to culture large (like, thousands-of-gallons large) quantities of biological weapons, including anthrax. Building 470 was decommissioned in 1971, and demolished in 2003; there were no dead bodies sealed in the walls, and demolition workers were more concerned about exposure to asbestos and lead paint used in the 1953 structure.
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I remember hearing the they contracted Bigfoot to do the work, but he contracted out to the Grays.
Is this a "in Soviet Russia" thing (Score:2)
Oh, I get it (Score:2)
Great article, but missed a bit (Score:2)
We desperately need to find an island in the middle of the pacific, or even in the Antarctica, and put up a facility there, with another facility where ppl shuffle off to for up to 2 months after leaving the primary facility. But it should be like the ISS and have multiple nations that work there with ppl going in for 3 or 6 month rotations.
YOu think thats scary? (Score:2)
Startalk - Cosmic Queries with Laurie Garrett
I met one of the vicitims (Score:2)
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from or (Score:1)