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> I don't know why anyone at BU would risk modifying Covid without the utmost precautions My wife was a laboratory inspector for a while. She'd come home with
by VyseofArcadia 4y ago
> I don't know why anyone at BU would risk modifying Covid without the utmost precautions
My wife was a laboratory inspector for a while. She'd come home with the craziest stories about how such-and-such lab tried to get away with this or that. I'd have the same question every time. "Why?!" Protocols only work if they're followed. We have such a long history of disasters, major or minor, because of negligence[0]. Cutting corners, operating outside the envelope, etc.
She'd always just shrug and say, "familiarity breeds contempt".[1]
[0] My favorite is Chernobyl.
[1] Also, a lot of scientists have this, "I know what I'm doing" attitude and see safety precautions as holding them back. It doesn't help that most of them see grad students as expendable.
- thrown_22 4y ago>[0] My favorite is Chernobyl. Biology is different to physics or chemistry. The worst nuclear accident can kill a few million people. The worst chemistry accident can kill a few hundreds of thousands of people. The worst biology accident can kill _everyone_.
- klabb3 4y agoI'm not sure I agree on the numbers, I have a hard time seeing a nuclear power accident leading to millions of dead. That said, the sentiment rings true. If we get the right mix of incubation time, reproduction numer and CFR in a novel virus, we are catastrophically and civilization level screwed. It's unbelievable how eg nuclear fission research has ground to a halt whereas GoF research on Covid(!) in a damn BSL-3 lab can be approved after what we just went through.
- VyseofArcadia 4y agoI didn't say it was worse. I said it was my favorite.