The Risk of Pandemic-Potential Pathogens in Labs
Experts studying killer viruses and bugs in labs warn that at least 1.6 million people worldwide could be wiped out by leaks from dangerous laboratories each year.
This calculation is based on fatality rates coupled with the number of accidents at biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories, which are considered the second most secure facilities.
There are approximately 600 BSL-3 bases in Britain alone, but it is unknown how many of these are experimenting on pandemic-potential pathogens.
Experts warn that studies in labs have led to the ability to engineer viruses to make them more deadly to humans, or bring back lethal strains that have been wiped out, including the 1918 flu.
Covid-19 experiments on delta and omicron variants, for example, have been carried out by Imperial College London to see which had a ‘competitive’ advantage over humans, leading to concerns about the possible creation of a monster virus that could have leaked from the lab.
Recent Findings and Theories on Covid-19 Origins
The updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers suggests that the virus driving the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak, but not as part of a weapons program.
This finding is a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged and came in an update to a document from the office of national intelligence director, Avril Haines.
Theories on how Covid-19 spread have centered on an unidentified animal transmitting the virus to humans or its accidental leak from a Chinese research lab in Wuhan.
The FBI reportedly issued a finding with ‘moderate confidence’ that the virus spread after leaking out of a Chinese laboratory.
Covid-19 has already wiped out nearly seven million people worldwide, and the risk of pandemic-potential pathogens leaking from labs remains a grave concern.
Expert’s Warning and Call for Review
Professor Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University, a renowned epidemiologist, warns that the risk of a lab leak is far from acceptable.
He urges a review of all research that raises the potential of causing a pandemic.
He estimated that each lab carrying out potentially deadly studies is putting between 10,000 and 1.6 million people at risk of death every year.