COVID-19

 

UK Edition | 15 June 2021

Academic rigour, journalistic flair

With some scientists and politicians calling for another look at the “lab-leak” theory of COVID-19, all eyes are once again on the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It may be a while – even an eternity – before we know if there’s any truth to suggestions the lab was the source of SARS-CoV-2. In the meantime, we thought we should take a look at some of the other labs around the world that deal with the world’s deadliest pathogens, so-called BSL4 labs.  Filippa Lentzos and Gregory Koblentz have taken an audit and the results are – how shall we say? – not comforting. The Global Health Security Index shows that only about a quarter of countries with BSL4 labs received high scores for biosafety and biosecurity. And no lab has yet signed up to the voluntary bio-risk management system (ISO 35001), which aims to reduce biosafety and biosecurity risks. If fighting the coronavirus and all its variants isn’t hard enough, counterfeiters are making the job all the harder. Apparently, there is a booming trade in counterfeit PPE, COVID-19 testing kits, vaccines and vaccine passports. Welcome to the new abnormal.  Most people equate pyramids with Egypt, but Sudan has a great many of these tombs, too. Unfortunately, due to climate change, they are being covered by shifting dunes. Could a “great green wall” be the solution? Clint Witchalls Health + Medicine Editor (UK edition) A virologist stands between rows of cages for laboratory animals in the new high security laboratory (biosafety level 4) at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany. dpa picture alliance/Alamy Stock Photo Fifty-nine labs around world handle the deadliest pathogens – only a quarter score high on safety Filippa Lentzos, King's College London; Gregory Koblentz, George Mason University A large proportion of scientific research on coronaviruses is carried out in countries with no oversight of experiments designed to make pathogens more deadly. Counterfeit vaccines, testing kits, and vaccine passports are undermining the global fight against COVID-19. AnaLysiSStudiO/Shutterstock Counterfeiting – the underworld threat to beating COVID-19 Mark Stevenson, Lancaster University Counterfeit vaccines are undermining the global effort to stop COVID-19. Why are they so prevalent, and how can we stop them?