Scienterrific Open Thread: Because 2017 Can *Always* Get Worse…

The US government has lifted a ban on making lethal viruses, saying the research is necessary to develop strategies against "rapidly evolving pathogens that pose a threat to public health" https://t.co/5c1mFdMhCI pic.twitter.com/aLWhsu5UOD

— CNN (@CNN) December 19, 2017

Deregulating plagues sounds like a great idea. https://t.co/27PdXv9IK9

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 20, 2017

Let’s remember why they put the whole “making deadly viruses” thing on pause in the first place… pic.twitter.com/df5vV3L06A

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 20, 2017

For the record, I’m all in favor of scientific research — I just don’t trust the Repubs and their hand-picked goobers to do anything useful here, and (like everybody else) I’m not sanguine about their ability not to make things actively worse…

… Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, made the announcement, in which he outlined a new framework for the controversial research. The work with three viruses can now go forward, but only if a scientific review panel determines that the benefits outweigh the risks…

The decision brings an end to a three-year moratorium on research involving the influenza virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (known as SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (or MERS). Critics say the research could unleash a new germ that threatens millions if it is not properly stored or if it escapes from a lab.

The government paused the research in 2014 to review the practices in handling and storing infectious agents. At the time, Collins said that biosafety and biosecurity risks needed to be “understood better.”

The pause came after several incidents involving the mishandling of potentially dangerous pathogens at government laboratories.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidentally exposed dozens of workers to anthrax in 2014, and a subsequent investigation detailed other instances in which lab workers did not follow protocol. Around that time, vials of the deadly smallpox virus were found in a cardboard box in an unsecured refrigerator at the National Institutes of Health’s campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

In Tuesday’s announcement, the institutes said that approved research would take place only if the researcher and institution where the research is being conducted demonstrate the “capacity and commitment to conduct it safely and securely, and have the ability to respond rapidly” should things go wrong.

It also said that the research must be “ethically justifiable” and that any pathogen created, transferred or used in the research “must be reasonably judged to be a credible source of a potential future human pandemic.”…

Here’s hoping Jared Kushner isn’t already circulating a memo offering to sell the findings to the highest bidder, cash before delivery, overseas depositories preferred. (I’d say “Don Jr.,” except we’d already have copies of the memo if it were one of Trump’s genetic sons making the offer.)

Ugh, fine just make it fast-acting I don't want the inevitable world-ending vial spillage to be any 'Outbreak' sort of mess. Andromeda Strain or bust yo. https://t.co/39xMmBLK5q

— Zeddy ( me [ person ] ) (@ZeddRebel) December 20, 2017