“Looking for Alien Viruses”… Scientists and Experts Warn of Global Outbreak

A report by the “Washington Post” newspaper on Monday highlighted the dangers of searching for exotic viruses, which the newspaper said could lead to outbreaks of deadly diseases and epidemics.

He explained that an increasing number of scientists are now reconsidering the risks of unearthing unknown viruses that can cause disease and spread global pandemics, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the “Washington Post”, the administration of US President Joe Biden is expected to impose stricter restrictions this year on research related to the types of pathogens that lead to diseases or epidemics, according to informed officials who spoke. Newspaper under the condition of anonymity. .

The newspaper pointed out that government regulations in the United States have failed to keep pace with new technologies in terms of safety and security standards that allow scientists to research new viruses to diagnose and treat diseases.

According to the newspaper, three years after the start of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of scientists, biosecurity experts and policy makers have come to the conclusion that traditional thinking about biosecurity and risk must change. Adopted global practices like virus mining.

Scientists and safety experts have said for two decades that the global expansion of dangerous research has outstripped the necessary measures to ensure safe work, especially since there are not enough biocontainment laboratories around the world to deal with dangerous pathogens.

And in dozens of interviews, experts and scientific officials, including the Biden administration, have acknowledged shortcomings in monitoring the most dangerous types of disease-causing research. While the pandemic has demonstrated the need for science to respond quickly to global crises, it has revealed significant gaps in how high-stakes research is organized, according to interviews and a review of thousands of pages of security documents, according to The Washington Post. .

According to the newspaper, while the origin of the coronavirus pandemic is uncertain, many scientists and experts suspect it may have been the result of natural transmission from animals to humans, the FBI concluded in a recent report from the Department of Energy. The source of the outbreak may have been the result of a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

Despite the lack of safety standards or necessary monitoring by regulatory authorities in some of these countries, governments and private researchers continue to build labs to work with the new viruses in most pathogens, the US newspaper said.

Meanwhile, US agencies continue to pour millions of dollars annually into foreign research such as virus research, which some scientists say puts local populations at risk.

The paper tracked US spending on pathogen research around the world. He explained that since 2012, the United States has spent billions of dollars to fight, prevent, and control zoonotic viruses and other infectious viruses and microbes worldwide. The federal government has awarded nearly $3 billion for work and research related to pathogens transmitted between humans and animals in at least 78 countries and more than 10 territories worldwide.

“This research is a national security concern. A global public health concern,” James Le Duc, an infectious disease expert who led the research for the US military and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the newspaper.