Hey, there! Log in / Register
Boston OKs BU work on Ebola, other deadly viruses
By adamg on Thu, 12/07/2017 - 3:21pm
BU Today reports the Boston Public Health Commission has given the go-ahead to BU's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories on Albany Street to begin research on the world's deadliest pathogens, including Ebola virus and the related Marburg virus.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
What could possibly go wrong?
Let me count the ways
Count higher
They already thought of those.
Depends on who you ask
Prof. David Ozonoff initially supported the proposal and considered the opposition to be unenlightened. However, he started speaking out against it when the people pushing it refused to answer his questions and conveniently ignored many of those ways.
Just because you like to pretend that carefully scripted risk assessments represent reality, doesn't mean that they do. Silence speaks volumes - if it is so safe, why wouldn't they address questions raised by health professionals who know what they are talking about?
Absence of analysis does not mean absence of risk.
Risk management
Risk has both probability and severity.
Absence of probability doesn't mean you have to care about severity alone.
I have a deadly high risk of dying if I get in a fist fight with a lion. However, I am not training to tame lions because I'll never be in a fist fight with a lion in my lifetime.
BSL4 labs have safety failure incidents
Remember when the BU BSL4 was first being debated publicly, and there were scientists and hospital workers protesting it being built in a dense urban area?
I'm avoiding BU, the Green Line, and all other subway lines that the lab workers might use when accidentally bringing a pathogen home from work.
If I see a pickup truck full of white supremacist nutjobs with AR-15s heading towards BU, I'm taking the next Uber upwind, and step on it.
You might want to find it on a map first
It's nowhere near the main BU campus. It's on Albany Street, near Boston Medical Center.
You do realize that they have
You do realize that they have very stringent safety protocols? it doesn't hurt to check.
Ebola
Can only imagine what property values are doing near the lab? Nosedive.....
Lighten up Francis
It's not like the lab has big flashing signs reading "Ebola Tested Here" or anything like that.
Nope. Going up.
those people working in those labs make a lot of money and they will want to live close by (hoping South Boston!). that will drive prices up.
the CDC is in the middle of a dense area for fuks sake. stop with the paranoia. having this lab in boston is a good thing....one step closer to being a world class city.
Why do you care?
You don't live in South Boston.
I hope so too!
I'd love for paranoia and stupidity to cause people to flee the South End so I can get a small brownstone for under $2.5M.
Interesting
So BU Public Health professors and BU medical professors who have worked on bioterrorism are paranoid and stupid because they didn't drink your bespoke safety kool-aid?
Wow. Interesting.
Mayor Walsh promised not to do this
When Mayor Walsh first ran for Mayor, he took a position against having the level 4 biolab in our neighborhoods.
So we voted for him. We are terrified that he is now allowing this and we may leave Boston.
Well...bye
honestly, people have more to
honestly, people have more to fear from the hordes of junkies milling around that neighborhood than they do from the pathogens in the lab.
Not true
But the air pollution from I-93 is a problem.
In theory, a university
In theory, a university disease lab is a great thing. Someone needs to study this if they're going to keep us safe.
I hope they implement it properly.