Keep calling out the lies by the Trump Administration. This is a very informative article about your work and its importance to world health and I will spread your information in my circle. Thank you. Lead on.
I guess people driving climate change can be said to be potentially violating point g. If melting permafrost leads to re-emergence of prehistoric viruses.
Dr. Rasmussen is doing exactly what strong scientists and educators should. She is explaining clearly that this policy is not about safety. It is about using disinformation to shut down critical research for political reasons.
This is not a serious effort to reduce risk. It is a deliberate attempt to defund and silence scientists whose work challenges political narratives. The real danger is not in the lab. It is in the abuse of power.
Dr. Bhattacharya’s role in this is especially troubling. His lack of expertise in virology and biosafety is clear, yet he is helping dismantle research programs that are essential for protecting public health.
True biosafety requires supporting careful, expert-led research. It cannot be left in the hands of political appointees who show open hostility toward science.
Interesting take. Appreciate the specific study examples, though you might add digging up Black Plague out of cadaver teeth to the stuff that could be impermissible under the new rules.
Also, is your use of “never” here provable?: “The papers were published in full in Science and Nature, Fouchier, Kawaoka, and others have continued to study these viruses safely in appropriate biocontainment. These viruses have never leaked from a lab.“
Biodefense researchers have long argued their work is crucial and necessary to save us all. Sometimes it feels like we are the sheep living next to the 1968 Dugway Proving Ground biow research center and the scientists are asking us to trust them, they have a really safe track record, and, of course, our best interests at heart…
I’ve never seen evidence suggesting that H5N1 leaked from a lab. Specifically those viruses have never been detected outside of a lab and there has never been a reported lab acquired infection, nor evidence that an unreported lab acquired infection occurred
Yet accidents happen, so never seems strong, or “safely” a bit subjective: “In 2013, six years before the 2019 safety incident with the ferret experiment at Kawaoka’s lab in Wisconsin, another member of his research team accidentally pierced their finger with a needle that had an engineered H5N1 virus on it. …, human error around 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16, 2013, that set off a series of emergency calls that would eventually raise concerns in the nation’s capital.” Quarantined at home for 7 days. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/04/11/lab-leak-accident-h-5-n-1-virus-avian-flu-experiment/11354399002/)
And as Amy, Lisa, Jessica and their colleagues at UNC lab know, even SARS-like viruses can bite ya at any time. Paperwork doesn’t say no one got infected, just no fever or signs. Apparently some coronavirus infections are asymptomatic, it’s said, but we are asked to just trust em. Would figure someone would draw her blood to check for infection. See page 23 of UNC accident reports: https://www.alisonyoungreports.com/_files/ugd/94d9fe_ad7c07e8325c429cb15318c96f2edcea.pdf
Are coronaviruses or H5N1 transmitted by percutaneous exposure? I suggest you ask Amy, Lisa, Jessica, or anyone with more expertise than Alison Young or one of your bosses on the Hill. I’d be happy to discuss the science with you in a professional capacity. Risk assessment is context-dependent and all of the supposed biosafety experts you and your bosses have relied upon are demonstrably unqualified to actually assess those safety risks.
I think for a) to g) in that note you have to rely on "could result in significant societal consequences and that..." As long as your research can't result in significant societal consequences, it's possibly OK under a legal reading of the instruction. Of course they can "interpret" any time.
Your article is lucid, detailed, and just adds to my despair as I watch Trump and his minions pulverize the Crown Jewels of American science and medicine. What is left of traditional journalism makes little effort to cover this debacle. Our public is so uneducated and misinformed. I cannot imagine more than maybe 5% being able to follow your article, despite your clear prose. Maybe we all need to learn to produce TikTok videos about the coming pandemics. I would flee this country if I were younger.
Science has much bigger problems than funding. This screed is tiresome, probably by design. Baffle us with bullshit some more. Pretend again that only now has science become political. But we’re not buying what you’re selling.
Thanks, Gigi. I was worried I might have to quit over being tiresome, but then remembered that I am not subject to oversight from anon accounts that identify with the worst non-Mountain Dew flavor of soda on the market
this is a detailed and thoughtful analysis of one small aspect of the travesty being wrought by donOLD's administration in public health and research
Keep calling out the lies by the Trump Administration. This is a very informative article about your work and its importance to world health and I will spread your information in my circle. Thank you. Lead on.
I guess people driving climate change can be said to be potentially violating point g. If melting permafrost leads to re-emergence of prehistoric viruses.
Thank you for a lucid response on current GOFROC policy.
Dr. Rasmussen is doing exactly what strong scientists and educators should. She is explaining clearly that this policy is not about safety. It is about using disinformation to shut down critical research for political reasons.
This is not a serious effort to reduce risk. It is a deliberate attempt to defund and silence scientists whose work challenges political narratives. The real danger is not in the lab. It is in the abuse of power.
Dr. Bhattacharya’s role in this is especially troubling. His lack of expertise in virology and biosafety is clear, yet he is helping dismantle research programs that are essential for protecting public health.
True biosafety requires supporting careful, expert-led research. It cannot be left in the hands of political appointees who show open hostility toward science.
Interesting take. Appreciate the specific study examples, though you might add digging up Black Plague out of cadaver teeth to the stuff that could be impermissible under the new rules.
Also, is your use of “never” here provable?: “The papers were published in full in Science and Nature, Fouchier, Kawaoka, and others have continued to study these viruses safely in appropriate biocontainment. These viruses have never leaked from a lab.“
Biodefense researchers have long argued their work is crucial and necessary to save us all. Sometimes it feels like we are the sheep living next to the 1968 Dugway Proving Ground biow research center and the scientists are asking us to trust them, they have a really safe track record, and, of course, our best interests at heart…
I’ve never seen evidence suggesting that H5N1 leaked from a lab. Specifically those viruses have never been detected outside of a lab and there has never been a reported lab acquired infection, nor evidence that an unreported lab acquired infection occurred
Yet accidents happen, so never seems strong, or “safely” a bit subjective: “In 2013, six years before the 2019 safety incident with the ferret experiment at Kawaoka’s lab in Wisconsin, another member of his research team accidentally pierced their finger with a needle that had an engineered H5N1 virus on it. …, human error around 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16, 2013, that set off a series of emergency calls that would eventually raise concerns in the nation’s capital.” Quarantined at home for 7 days. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/04/11/lab-leak-accident-h-5-n-1-virus-avian-flu-experiment/11354399002/)
And as Amy, Lisa, Jessica and their colleagues at UNC lab know, even SARS-like viruses can bite ya at any time. Paperwork doesn’t say no one got infected, just no fever or signs. Apparently some coronavirus infections are asymptomatic, it’s said, but we are asked to just trust em. Would figure someone would draw her blood to check for infection. See page 23 of UNC accident reports: https://www.alisonyoungreports.com/_files/ugd/94d9fe_ad7c07e8325c429cb15318c96f2edcea.pdf
Are coronaviruses or H5N1 transmitted by percutaneous exposure? I suggest you ask Amy, Lisa, Jessica, or anyone with more expertise than Alison Young or one of your bosses on the Hill. I’d be happy to discuss the science with you in a professional capacity. Risk assessment is context-dependent and all of the supposed biosafety experts you and your bosses have relied upon are demonstrably unqualified to actually assess those safety risks.
I think for a) to g) in that note you have to rely on "could result in significant societal consequences and that..." As long as your research can't result in significant societal consequences, it's possibly OK under a legal reading of the instruction. Of course they can "interpret" any time.
Your article is lucid, detailed, and just adds to my despair as I watch Trump and his minions pulverize the Crown Jewels of American science and medicine. What is left of traditional journalism makes little effort to cover this debacle. Our public is so uneducated and misinformed. I cannot imagine more than maybe 5% being able to follow your article, despite your clear prose. Maybe we all need to learn to produce TikTok videos about the coming pandemics. I would flee this country if I were younger.
Science has much bigger problems than funding. This screed is tiresome, probably by design. Baffle us with bullshit some more. Pretend again that only now has science become political. But we’re not buying what you’re selling.
omg so deep! I know you are so proud of your intellect! lol
Thanks, Gigi. I was worried I might have to quit over being tiresome, but then remembered that I am not subject to oversight from anon accounts that identify with the worst non-Mountain Dew flavor of soda on the market