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- "Of particular concern was a plan to quarantine all researchers exposed to modified H5N1 at home, even if they were at high risk of infection — an approach th

- "Of particular concern was a plan to quarantine all researchers exposed to modified H5N1 at home, even if they were at high risk of infection — an approach that the funding agency administrators found so alarming that..." They're already relying on researchers to self-report exposure incidents, so what other, better policy could they aspire to? Attach any negative deterrent to incident reporting, and people will simply not report things, for their own convenience. The empirical evidence for this is more overwhelming than physics' QED theory. Pretending that their lab technicians will dutifully and conscientiously self-report exposures is exactly the same security surface as pretending that they will dutifully and correctly self-quarantine at home.

belval 3y ago
> what other, better policy could they aspire to Force the universities to get insurance, an on-site monitoring room with food service and pay 24 hours per day for 14 days. This type of research is inherently dangerous, the idea that a lab tech exposed to a potential pandemic-causing infectious agent should be just expected to go home (where they likely have family/friends) and trusted to self-isolate is plain bad policy. Coming out of 2 years of pandemic and self-isolation at the global level the idea that we will be willing to compromise on this so that a university can save money is downright moronic. If they cannot conform to the stringent rules for that sort of research, they shouldn't be doing it. Simple as that.