On Dec. 11, the Central Epidemic Command Center announced that a research assistant at the biosafety level 3 (P3) laboratory of Academia Sinica’s Genomics Research Center in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) had been infected with COVID-19. This incident is shocking, but not entirely unexpected.
Laboratories are inherently dangerous places. Biosafety level 4 (P4) laboratories handle infectious and highly lethal pathogens such as Ebola, Lassa fever and the Marburg virus, which are often difficult to treat, whereas P3 laboratories study pathogens such as the tuberculosis bacterium and SARS-CoV-2, which are slightly less lethal, but still dangerous.
In 1967, African green monkeys transported from Uganda to Germany turned out to be infected with a virus that they passed on to humans, sickening 37 people, including laboratory researchers in Marburg and Frankfurt, and their family members, seven of whom died. The virus was named the Marburg virus after the location of this breakout.
During the 2002 to 2004 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), laboratory accidents occurred in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore and Taiwan. The two SARS leaks that happened in Beijing in April 2004 were confirmed to have occurred at the Institute of Virus Research of the Beijing Disease Control Bureau, but even now the Chinese authorities do not know exactly where the infection came from. One of the two laboratories was studying the genetic material of SARS virus fragments, which theoretically could not have caused the infections, and the other laboratory’s work had nothing to do with SARS.
As for the SARS accident in Taiwan, the virus leaked from the National Defense Medical Center’s P4 laboratory in then-Taipei County’s Sansia Township (三峽) — now New Taipei City’s Sansia District — and the cause of the leak is still unknown.
There are currently about 59 P4 laboratories in operation around the world. Laboratory accidents range from small ones, such as mouse bites, pricks and tears in gloves and protective clothing, to larger events, such as the loss of negative air pressure or software failures.
Scientists still do not understand the risks of P3 and P4 laboratories well enough to assess the risks precisely, but it is generally believed that 100 times more accidents are caused by human factors than mechanical failures.
The most effective way to improve the situation would be to work out how to standardize experimental procedures.
In the US, for example, Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories require their researchers to undergo at least 100 hours of special training before they can work in a P4 laboratory.
Ian Hsu is president of a biotechnology company and a part-time assistant professor at National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Weeks into the craze, nobody quite knows what to make of the OpenClaw mania sweeping China, marked by viral photos of retirees lining up for installation events and users gathering in red claw hats. The queues and cosplay inspired by the “raising a lobster” trend make for irresistible China clickbait. However, the West is fixating on the least important part of the story. As a consumer craze, OpenClaw — the AI agent designed to do tasks on a user’s behalf — would likely burn out. Without some developer background, it is too glitchy and technically awkward for true mainstream adoption,
On Monday, a group of bipartisan US senators arrived in Taiwan to support the nation’s special defense bill to counter Chinese threats. At the same time, Beijing announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had invited Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to visit China, a move to make the KMT a pawn in its proxy warfare against Taiwan and the US. Since her inauguration as KMT chair last year, Cheng, widely seen as a pro-China figure, has made no secret of her desire to interact with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and meet with Xi, naming it a
A delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials led by Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is to travel to China tomorrow for a six-day visit to Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing, which might end with a meeting between Cheng and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The trip was announced by Xinhua news agency on Monday last week, which cited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) as saying that Cheng has repeatedly expressed willingness to visit China, and that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and Xi have extended an invitation. Although some people have been speculating about a potential Xi-Cheng
No state has ever formally recognized the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) as a legal entity. The reason is not a lack of legitimacy — the CTA is a functioning exile government with democratic elections and institutions — but the iron grip of realpolitik. To recognize the CTA would be to challenge the People’s Republic of China’s territorial claims, a step no government has been willing to take given Beijing’s economic leverage and geopolitical weight. Under international law, recognition of governments-in-exile has precedent — from the Polish government during World War II to Kuwait’s exile government in 1990 — but such recognition
RSS