Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Biological Research Laboratories

China is using its propaganda machine to blame someone else for the breakout of COVID 19. Their latest gambit is a report on CBS yesterday about a "Scientific Study" showing the virus originated in Europe. How lame is that? Everyone knows where it started, supposedly in a meat market in Wuhan China. Now we're beginning to hear more and more about a Level Four, biological laboratory located several blocks away.

Personally I don't particularly care if it generated spontaneously at the meat market or if it broke containment in a research laboratory. I happened, and it is another in a long line of biological agents that originated in China. Unlike many I lean towards the bio-lab theory based upon my experience and knowledge of human nature.

In College my wife worked in a level 3 facility at the CDC in Atlanta. She was a Summer Intern for two years. When she began she tested negative for Tuberculosis and when she left she tested positive. She had not contracted the disease but was exposed and developed an immunity. She related to me the story of one of her coworkers who liked to sneak off and smoke cigarettes in the animal house. This individual contacted a full blown case of TB. All organizations have stories of what really goes on behind the scenes and research labs are no exception. Workers don't always follow procedures and mistakes are made. Nobody wants to admit they made a mistake and the tendency is to cover it up. Creating a disciplined culture that on one hand insists on attention to detail and is intolerant of slip-shod behavior while on the other is open and forgiving of human error is a hard needle to thread. What I mean is that somebody that drops a test tube needs to know they won't be sent to the Gulag. Openness and willingness to "fess" up are crucial to containing the consequences of an error. As long as there are humans involved, accidents are going to happen and when they do getting people to raise their hand is no easy task. So I don't really see how one can expect to avoid lab workers becoming contaminated from time to time. The should report an incident when it happens but will just as likely try and cover it up.

If you look at the requirements behind the various levels of a bio test facility you will quickly see a glaring problem... This is that regardless of how sensitive the work is, the workers go home every night. It would seem to me that if the work is really dangerous then the workers should remain a month in the facility....They should spend two weeks with the agent and two weeks in quarantine. After the initial two weeks they are tested for the agent and tested again upon checking out. If they become contaminated the symptoms will develop while the worker is still inside the containment facility. This measure might seem draconian but it sure beats the measures we have currently in place. Hey, if sailors can be cooped up on a submarine for months on end so can research workers in a Level 5 facility. I know, I. know, there is no such thing as a level 5 facility where people are kept separated from society for extended periods. There should be.