I have been studying the origin of epidemics for over a decade, through the perspective of a physician with formal training in outbreak investigation and as a researcher of biowarfare and bioterrorism, long before the COVID-19 pandemic. I wrote a whole book on the topic, Dark Winter, and established a course at UNSW called “Bioterrorism...

Silence by André Goffinet The commentary by Popescu et al. expresses concern that gain-of-function research has gotten a bad rap. The commentary first notes that gain-of-function research describes a wide array of genetic methods, including the use of fluorescent proteins in basic research, the creation of mouse models for studying disease, and the creation of...

At Biosafety Now, our vision is a future free of lab-created pandemics. These may arise as a result of human error, which is exceedingly common in legitimate, regulated laboratories as catalogued by the American Biological Safety Association. If such an accident involves a highly transmissible pathogen, a pandemic may arise. Lab-created pandemics can arise from error...

La Promesse by André Goffinet Since the first rumblings about a possible lab leak in Wuhan, my position has been that it is as acceptable, and indeed as inevitable, for a non-scientist to be concerned about gain-of-function research of concern (GOFROC) as they are about climate change and nuclear conflict. But outsiders who choose to...

Domain expertise and monopoly of knowledge   In the debate about the origin of COVID-19, claims exist that only “domain experts” are qualified to comment; that the opinion of “outsiders” should be devalued, if not disregarded altogether. This is neither a new claim, nor unique to any specific scientific field. However, at the extreme, it...

Artist Augusto Zambonato, “DNA” series, 2015 There’s some irony in the fact that dangerous microbes that are investigated in the name of increasing our safety might do just the opposite if released. This article by Gregory Koblentz and Rocco Casagrande (New York Times 2/20/2023) is an important step in the right direction, highlighting the fact...

The US Department of Energy recently assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely caused by scientists doing research on viruses. This assessment is not proof of the “lab leak” theory: it was made at “low confidence”, and different US government agencies have made different assessments about the likely origins of COVID-19. The scientific community also...