By Bulletin Staff, March 19, 2020
Photo courtesy of Tom Manney
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is proud to announce a partnership with The New Yorker magazine about the future of biodefense research labs in the United States.
Well-run high-containment laboratories are crucial to advancing our understanding of new diseases and pandemics, including pathogens like Ebola, Zika, and the novel coronavirus. Animal disease research labs study zoonotic diseases–those that can jump from animals to humans–and those that could destroy the livestock industry, such as foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.
Bulletin contributing editor Elisabeth Eaves spent the last two years traveling from the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York to its planned new site in Kansas. She spoke with dozens of scientists, biosecurity experts, residents, and government officials many of whom find it “baffling that anyone would consider installing a high-containment animal-disease laboratory in the middle of livestock country.”
Eaves’ research raises concerns that “no single federal agency knows how many such labs there are in the United States.”
Ask Elisabeth Eaves about biocontainment labs, her conversations with scientists and residents, and more during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” this Friday, March 20, at 12 pm Central. If you have questions how to join, please contact Gayle Spinazze at gspinazze@thebulletin.org.
Join us for a Twitter chat with Elisabeth Eaves and global health experts including Filippa Lentzos, Laura Kahn, and Saskia Popescu on Tuesday, March 24, at 11 am Central.
Media inquiries: Janice Sinclaire, jsinclaire@thebulletin.org
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