What Happened After The Explosion at a Virology Campus in Siberia? (thebulletin.org) 34
Lasrick writes:
You may remember the explosion at VECTOR, once a center of Soviet biological warfare research. Filippa Lentzos, senior research fellow jointly appointed in the Departments of War Studies and of Global Health and Social Medicine at King's College London, just posted an update on what happened after the explosion. Her research focuses on biological threats and on the security and governance of emerging technologies in the life sciences, and she's been covering the accident since it first happened in September.
The article examines the facility's history as the center of the Soviet Union's biological warfare effort -- and how forthcoming Russian officials were in the wake of the September incident: Global public health and security officials were concerned the explosion might have affected labs holding dangerous viruses... An international legal framework (the International Health Regulations) obligates countries to notify the World Health Organization of events constituting a public health risk. In the case of the VECTOR explosion, where, as far as we know, no staff were infected and there were no signs of a disease outbreak to suggest there might be a public health risk, the incident would not require formal notification. Informal communications are always encouraged, however, and, according to another source, once prompted, Russian officials did also communicate through more formal channels following the incident at VECTOR to reassure the international public health community.
The explosion had occurred in a decontamination room where staff change into and out of the personal protective gear worn in high containment labs. The area was being renovated at the time of the incident and there were no biohazardous substances in the room. While the windows had been blown out, there was no structural damage to the building itself. One contractor had been taken to hospital with severe burns and was in intensive care, but there were no public health risks stemming from the explosion...
The international community does not yet know with any certainty what really happened at VECTOR that day. If it really was an accidental gas explosion with no resulting health or security risks, the situation seems to have been handled appropriately. But given Russia's history of covering up biological warfare research and secrecy around major accidents, national and local officials needed to show even more transparency than they did.
The article examines the facility's history as the center of the Soviet Union's biological warfare effort -- and how forthcoming Russian officials were in the wake of the September incident: Global public health and security officials were concerned the explosion might have affected labs holding dangerous viruses... An international legal framework (the International Health Regulations) obligates countries to notify the World Health Organization of events constituting a public health risk. In the case of the VECTOR explosion, where, as far as we know, no staff were infected and there were no signs of a disease outbreak to suggest there might be a public health risk, the incident would not require formal notification. Informal communications are always encouraged, however, and, according to another source, once prompted, Russian officials did also communicate through more formal channels following the incident at VECTOR to reassure the international public health community.
The explosion had occurred in a decontamination room where staff change into and out of the personal protective gear worn in high containment labs. The area was being renovated at the time of the incident and there were no biohazardous substances in the room. While the windows had been blown out, there was no structural damage to the building itself. One contractor had been taken to hospital with severe burns and was in intensive care, but there were no public health risks stemming from the explosion...
The international community does not yet know with any certainty what really happened at VECTOR that day. If it really was an accidental gas explosion with no resulting health or security risks, the situation seems to have been handled appropriately. But given Russia's history of covering up biological warfare research and secrecy around major accidents, national and local officials needed to show even more transparency than they did.
Hmmmmmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
"Filippa Lentzos, senior research fellow jointly appointed in the Departments of War Studies and of Global Health and Social Medicine at King's College London..."
Departments of... ... War Studies
AND ... Global Health and Medicine.
An interesting combination, indeed.
Re: (Score:2)
From a health standpoint, war might be an entirely treatable disease.
It also is generally not good for anyone's health.
Re: Hmmmmmmm... (Score:2)
Not true, war probably increased the health of profiteers like Dick Cheney
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Departments of... ... War Studies ... Global Health and Medicine.
AND
An interesting combination, indeed.
It seems like a fairly logical combination. War generally affects global health, and medicine has been advanced in the name of war, and has also advanced the ability to make war.
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Ever hear of the TV show called "MASH"? It is not very surprising that the military has a lot of medical doctors. Most specialize in Trauma (bullet and shrapnel wounds, etc), but some still specialize in poison gas and biological attacks.
More than 1/2 are involved in defense rather than offense because defense is much harder to do than offense.
Re:I no longer feel any joy in using the Internet. (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want to be "heard" and "spread your message" why not actually try posting a news item that even vaguely resembles the paranoia you have?
Re: I no longer feel any joy in using the Internet (Score:2)
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Pretty sure that is part of the monetization of slashdot
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That same thing gets copy/pasted to every article. You haven't been reading at -1 for very long.
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You're holding it wrong . . .
My guess... (Score:3)
...is that they all got new jobs at troll farms and convinced everyone to vote for Trump.
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...is that they all got new jobs at troll farms and convinced everyone to vote for Trump.
My goodness; they are good at everything!
Zombies (Score:1)
What happened next? Obviously ... (Score:2)
"Accident" my ass! (Score:1)
Nobody in this world is so gullible and black-eyed, that he believes *that*! ^^
Rusians, US, China, Britain, Israel, ... somebody did some huge fuckery there.
Man, do I wish I knew the internals. :)
Because due to my family's history, I know that those crazy Hollywood spy movies actually understate things, as nobody would believe something as crazy as reality.
(No, not aliens though. Sadly. But certainly human experiments. Sadly.)
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It happened on the fifth floor that was undergoing renovations. The really fun stuff is stored several floors underground, just like the Umbrella Corp does. If it was deliberate, it was poorly executed.
WCKD is still good.
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I think you mean "State Heros died in pursuit of defending Russia from Western threats", at least that would be the RT story
HHHHMMMM (Score:1)
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I don't think we need to bring Trump into this. He cannot even shakedown the Ukrainians without tripping over his tail.
Smallpoxvirus reconstituted from DNA fragments (Score:3)
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No biohazardous substances in the room (Score:1)
But NATO, the UK need a "Russia" news day...
In other news (Score:2)
In other news: bubonic plague in China https://www.express.co.uk/news... [express.co.uk]
Book to Read. (Score:2)
An interesting book I would recommend about the topic: "The Demon in the Freezer" by Richard Preston - mostly about smallpox, but also about Russia's biological warfare program. Just have to warn, that this book will not leave anybody happier or more hopeful for the future.
Essentially Russia's biological and chemical weapon research is beyond dangerous and disregards any signed international treaties.
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Danger?
What could prossibly be dangerous about a lab that once produced tons of variola virus studying Marberg and Ebola?
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