U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses(science.org)

56 points by we_never_see_it 2 years ago | 43 comments

> DEEP VZN drew especially sharp scrutiny because the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that specializes in sampling animals in attempts to prevent emerging diseases, played a central role in the PREDICT consortium. (EcoHealth also had a long-standing collaboration with the Wuhan lab at the center of the lab-leak theory.)

This is why it actually matters to try to figure out if the lab leak is the most probably cause, taking into account adverse interference based on the Chinese government's massive destruction of evidence. If the lab leak was the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, then it is very reasonable to shut down related programs.

PartiallyTyped 2 years ago | |

Regardless of whether it is, even if the probability of a leak is in general low, we have seen that the expected number of deaths is likely in the millions.

Airplanes had far far fewer deaths for the aerospace industry to reach current safety regulations and requirements.

Given that, the regulations and requirements when dealing with pathogens should increase accordingly to match the potential damage.

matt3210 2 years ago |

Typical… during peace time nations often get complacent. During healthy time, nations often get complacent. I thought it would take longer given just two years ago most stuff was shut down.

rngname22 2 years ago | |

Why is yours the top comment when it's obvious you didn't read the article? Canceling this program is a move to prevent future pandemics by reducing the chance of gain-of-function research to go awry and result in accidental release of augmented viruses.

There are other types of research on viruses, zoonotic virus reservoirs, all sorts of topics that don't involve intentionally making a sample more and more contagious or deadly.

Obama also instituted a moratorium on US federal funding for this class of research during his tenure. This is a bipartisan issue. Nothing controversial for anyone other than grant recipients who need this money to keep their business afloat.

sp332 2 years ago | |

Still over 100 deaths per day in the US. And those are official numbers, certainly an undercount.

anonporridge 2 years ago | | |

2400 die every day from heart disease in the US, but those who are still terrified of Covid today generally aren't allocating 24x of their fear budget towards heart disease and starting a regular running habit or improving their diet to flatten that curve.

Life belongs to those who learn proper fear prioritization.

psychlops 2 years ago | | |

We haven't been over excess mortality since January according to the CDC. People will always be dying of something, today it's with covid.

readthenotes1 2 years ago | |

Perhaps the complacency was assuming people would treat dangerous viruses as deadly weapons, and we've decided it's not worth the risk.

So not:

"Scientists working in this field might say—as indeed I have said—that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484390/

(Of course, common sense would say that if you're not willing to do this in your own backyard, you probably shouldn't let people with laxer standards and do it in theirs)

kevlened 2 years ago |

This is fantastic news. I recommend listening to Rob Reid's interview with Kevin Esvelt on the topic.

The gist is the program was designed to find potential viruses, then share them openly so countries without resources for this research could still prepare for future viruses. Obviously, open access to recipes for pandemic-grade viruses means they could also be used for nefarious means.

It's worth listening to the analysis as Rob Reid is an excellent interviewer and Kevin Esvelt is an expert in the field (he's at the forefront of gene drives).

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr28XeVYm8U

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qWiCan9lAMnVrWqzpdHoI?si=0...

Kerb_ 2 years ago | |

China hiding evidence of a pandemic-grade virus is exactly why it spread globally before anyone was able to do Jack shit about it

TurkishPoptart 2 years ago | | |

And why did the U.S. never restrict flights from China until months later?