BIOTECHNOLOGY <https://www.independentsciencenews.org/sections/biotechnology/>, HEALTH <https://www.independentsciencenews.org/sections/health/>, NEWS <https://www.independentsciencenews.org/sections/news/> AUGUST 13, 2020 Engineered COVID-19-Infected Mouse Bites Researcher Amid ‘Explosion’ Of Risky Coronavirus Research
*by Jonathan Latham, PhD* https://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/engineered-covid-19- infected-mouse-bites-researcher-amid-explosion-of- risky-coronavirus-research/ *University researchers genetically engineer a human pandemic virus. They inject the new virus into a laboratory mouse. The infected mouse then bites a researcher…..It is a plot worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster about risky coronavirus research.* *But according to newly obtained minutes of the Institutional Biosafety Committee <https://2f7nhsvfj5dyz0312njuuj14-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/For-Production-to-Requestor-IBC-Meeting-Minutes.pdf> (IBC) of the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, these exact events need not be imagined. They occurred for real between April 1st and May 6th this year.* *The identity of the bitten coronavirus researcher has not been revealed except that they were working in a high security BSL-3 virus lab when the accident happened.* *According to Richard Ebright <https://www.waksman.rutgers.edu/ebright>, an epidemiologist from Rutgers University, the UNC incident underscores an important development in virus research since the pandemic began:* *“There has been an explosion of research involving fully infectious SARS-CoV-2 over the last six months. Research with infectious SARS-CoV-2 now is occurring in every, or almost every, BSL-3 facility in the US and overseas.”* *This strong upsurge <https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/15/844752/biologists-rush-to-re-create-the-china-coronavirus-from-its-dna-code/> is affirmed by Edward Hammond of Prickly Research, Austin, TX, former Director of the Sunshine Project, an NGO that tracked the post 9/11 expansion of the US Biodefense program.* *“It is evident that swarms of academic researchers with little prior experience with coronaviruses have leapt into the field in recent months.”* *For Hammond, this explosion represents a hazard:* *“We need to be clear headed about the risk. The first SARS virus was a notorious source of laboratory-acquired infections and there is a very real risk that modified forms of SARS-CoV-2 could infect researchers, especially inexperienced researchers, with unpredictable and potentially quite dangerous results. The biggest risk is the creation and accidental release of a novel form of SARS-CoV-2 — a variant whose altered characteristics might undermine global efforts to stop the pandemic by evading the approaches being taken to find COVID vaccines and treatments.”* *And, continues Hammond: “Each additional lab that experiments with CoV-2 amplifies the risk.”* *Richard Ebright concurs, telling Independent Science News in an email that this research is:* *“in many cases being performed by researchers who have no prior experience in BSL-3 operations and pathogens research, and who therefore pose elevated risk of laboratory accidents with BSL-3 pathogens.”* *Ebright is also concerned that some influential experimenters are now calling for reduced oversight :* *“The UNC incident also underscores that calls by some, notably Columbia University virologist Vincent Racaniello <https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-620/> (Podcast at 01:35mins onwards), to allow virus-culture and virus-production research with fully infectious SARS-CoV-2 at BSL-2 are egregiously irresponsible and absolutely unacceptable.”* *Other researchers are also calling for restraint. In a paper titled “Prudently conduct the engineering and synthesis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus”, researchers from China and the US critiqued the synthesis in February of a full length infectious clone (Gao et al., 2020 <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405805X20300193>; Thao et al., 2020 <https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2020/02/21/2020.02.21.959817.full.pdf>). And, in concluding, these researchers asked a question that is even more pertinent now <https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/the-case-is-building-that-covid-19-had-a-lab-origin/> than then “Once the risks [of a lab escape] become a reality, who or which organization should take responsibility for them?”* *Click on the link for the rest.* -- If you appreciate News From Underground, please consider making a donation — either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription: http://markcrispinmiller.com/support/ Thank you for your support. 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