By W. Ian Lipkin and Ralph Baric:
What worries us is the insufficient safety precautions the researchers took when studying this coronavirus.
Research laboratories have different levels of security, based on its categorization on a biosafety level scale, from BSL-1, the lowest, to BSL-4. Lower-security labs are used for studying infectious agents that either don’t cause disease in people or pose only moderate risk. The higher-security laboratories are for studying pathogens that can spread in the air and have the potential to cause lethal infections.
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BSL-4 labs are the ones featured in movies where scientists walk around in what look like spacesuits with air hoses and shower in decontamination chambers when their work is done. BSL-3 labs limit access to specifically trained staff members, have locking double doors for enhanced security and specific air handling and sterilization systems. Workers wear head-to-toe personal protective equipment and are under medical surveillance for signs of laboratory-acquired infection that could pose a risk to others.
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Ralph Baric and Ian Lipkin in the NYT raising the alarm on a new Cell paper where Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists experiment on ANOTHER coronavirus that can infect humans under grossly inadequate biosafety precautions.
“could have significant risks for people worldwide.”
Related:
Covid era Dane County Madison Public Health Mandate and Lockdown policies.
Waiting for an analysis of the long term costs of taxpayer supported Dane County Madison Public Health “mandates”