October 2019: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Others, Simulate, “An Outbreak of a Novel Zoonotic Coronavirus… That Eventually Becomes Efficiently Transmissible from Person to Person, Leading to a Severe Pandemic”
January 22nd, 2020Flashback 2017: Wuhan: Inside the Chinese Lab Poised to Study World’s Most Dangerous Pathogens
Via: Nature:
A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The move is part of a plan to build between five and seven biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chinese mainland by 2025, and has generated much excitement, as well as some concerns.
Some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping, and the addition of a biological dimension to geopolitical tensions between China and other nations. But Chinese microbiologists are celebrating their entrance to the elite cadre empowered to wrestle with the world’s greatest biological threats.
“It will offer more opportunities for Chinese researchers, and our contribution on the BSL?4-level pathogens will benefit the world,” says George Gao, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology in Beijing. There are already two BSL-4 labs in Taiwan, but the National Bio-safety Laboratory, Wuhan, would be the first on the Chinese mainland.
The lab was certified as meeting the standards and criteria of BSL-4 by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) in January. The CNAS examined the lab’s infrastructure, equipment and management, says a CNAS representative, paving the way for the Ministry of Health to give its approval. A representative from the ministry says it will move slowly and cautiously; if the assessment goes smoothly, it could approve the laboratory by the end of June.
BSL-4 is the highest level of biocontainment: its criteria include filtering air and treating water and waste before they leave the laboratory, and stipulating that researchers change clothes and shower before and after using lab facilities. Such labs are often controversial. The first BSL-4 lab in Japan was built in 1981, but operated with lower-risk pathogens until 2015, when safety concerns were finally overcome.
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Update: Wuhan: China Locks Down City of 11 Million at Epicenter of Virus Outbreak
Via: Reuters:
China is putting on lockdown a city of 11 million people considered the epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 and infected nearly 600, as health authorities around the world scramble to prevent a global pandemic.
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Wuhan’s city government said it would shut down all urban transport networks and suspend outgoing flights from 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Thursday, state media said. Domestic media said some airlines were operating after the deadline, however.
State media broadcast images of one of Wuhan’s transport hubs, the Hankou rail station, nearly deserted, with gates blocked or barred. The government is urging citizens not to leave the city.
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“Countries are reacting in different ways as to how best to manage the overwhelming amounts of dis and misinformation circulating over the Internet. In some cases, limited Internet shutdowns are being implemented to quell panic.”
Via: Global Biodefence:
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have issued 7 recommendations in a joint call for action for new public-private cooperation to improve Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Recommendations have been reviewed, built upon and agreed to since first introduced at the Event 201 pandemic exercise conducted in October 2019 that featured a fictional coronavirus igniting a major pandemic and 15 global corporate and health stakeholders from key industries responding.
The next severe pandemic will not only cause great illness and loss of life but could also trigger major cascading economic and societal consequences that could contribute greatly to global impact and suffering. Efforts to prevent such consequences or respond to them as they unfold will require unprecedented levels of collaboration between governments, international organizations, and the private sector.
Hey everybody, time to pony up BIIIIIIIG time to pay for enough vaccines for EEEEEVerybody! We’re talking trillions! Trillions for vaccines, trillions for war — I feel so incredibly safe!
Goodbye, freedom. Goodbye sanity.
I wonder what the economic effects of an epidemic would be for both China and the rest of the world if it resulted in the loss of a few million Chinese lives. Certainly wouldn’t help their real estate market, but would likely cause global price drops in commodities.