The theory that COVID-19 might be the result of scientific experiments has thrown a spotlight on the work of the world's most secure biolabs.
While the evidence linking SARS-CoV-2 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China is strictly circumstantial, a number of experts want tougher controls on such facilities over fears that accidental leaks could touch off the next pandemic.
Here's what you should know.
- 59 top facilities -
The Wuhan lab belongs to the most secure class, commonly referred to as biosafety level 4, or BSL4.
These are built to work safely and securely with the most dangerous bacteria and viruses that can cause serious diseases for which there are no known treatment or vaccines.
"There are HVAC filtration systems, so that the virus can't escape through exhaust; any waste water that leaves the facility is treated with either chemicals or high temperatures to make sure that there's nothing alive," Gregory Koblentz, director of the Biodefense Graduate Program at George Mason University, told AFP.
The researchers themselves are highly trained and wear hazmat suits.
There are 59 such facilities across the world, according to a report Koblentz co-authored that was released this week.
"There are no binding international standards for safe, secure, and responsible work on pathogens," the report, called Mapping Maximum Biological Containment Labs Globally, said.
- Accidents do happen -
Accidents can happen, sometimes at the top tier facilities, and much more frequently at lower rung labs of which there are thousands.
Human H1N1 virus -- the same flu that caused the 1918 pandemic -- leaked in 1977 in the Soviet Union and China and spread worldwide.
In 2001, a mentally disturbed employee at a US biolab mailed out anthrax spores across the country, killing five people.
Two Chinese researchers exposed to SARS in 2004 spread the disease to others, killing one.
In 2014, a handful of smallpox vials were uncovered during an Food and Drug Administration office move.
Lynn Klotz, a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, has been sounding the alarm for many years about the public safety threats posed by such facilities.
"Human errors constitute over 70 percent of the errors in laboratories," he told AFP, adding that US researchers have to rely on data from Freedom of Information requests to learn of these incidents.
- 'Gain of function' controversy -
There is disagreement between the US government, which funded bat coronavirus research in Wuhan, and some independent scientists, about whether this work was controversial "gain of function" (GOF) research.
GOF research entails modifying pathogens to make them more transmissible, deadlier, or better able to evade treatment and vaccines all to learn how to fight them better.
This field has long been contentious. Debate reached a fever pitch when two research teams in 2011 showed they could make bird flu transmissible between mammals.
Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch told AFP he was concerned "that it would create a strain of virus that if it infected a laboratory worker could not just kill that laboratory worker... but also cause a pandemic."
"The research is not required and does not contribute to the development of drugs or vaccines," added molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, one of the staunchest opponents of this kind of research.
In 2014 the US government announced a pause in federal funding for such work, which gave way in 2017 to a framework that would consider each application on a case-by-case basis.
But the process has been criticized as lacking transparency and credibility.
As late as last year, a nonprofit received funding from the US on research to "predict spillover potential" of bat coronavirus to humans in Wuhan.
Questioned by Congress this week, Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health denied this amounted to gain of function research, but Ebright said it clearly does.
- The path ahead -
None of this means that Covid-19 definitely leaked from a lab in fact there is no hard scientific evidence in favor of natural origin or lab accident scenario, said Ebright.
But there are certain lines of circumstantial evidence in favor of the latter. For instance, Wuhan is around 1,000 miles north of bat caves that harbor the ancestor virus, well out of the animals' flight range.
Scientists from Wuhan were however known to be carrying out routine trips to those caves to take samples.
Alina Chan, a molecular biologist from the Broad Institute, said there were no signs of risky pathogen research dying down in the wake of the pandemic -- in fact "it's possibly expanded."
Last year, Chan published research showing that, unlike SARS, SARS-CoV-2 was not evolving fast when it was first detected in humans another piece of circumstantial evidence that could point to lab origin.
Chan considers herself a "fence-sitter" on the competing hypotheses, but does not favor banning risky research, fearing it would then go underground.
One solution "might just be as simple as moving these research institutes out into extremely remote areas...where you have to quarantine for two weeks before we re-enter in human society," she said.
ETX Studio
Mon May 31 2021
The theory that COVID-19 might be the result of scientific experiments has thrown a spotlight on the work of the world's most secure biolabs. ETXStudiopic
Kebakaran hutan tanah gambut di Rompin dijangka dipadamkan sepenuhnya seminggu lagi
Kebakaran di kawasan hutan tanah gambut di Rompin sejak Sabtu lepas dijangka dapat dipadamkan sepenuhnya dalam tempoh seminggu lagi.
Fahmi bidas kenyataan Dr Afif mengenai calon PH bagi PRK
Fahmi membidas Ahli Majlis Pimpinan Tertinggi Bersatu Dr Afif Bahardin yang dianggapnya membuat kenyataan seksis terhadap calon PH bagi PRK KKB, Pang Sock Tao.
Etika kewartawanan bezakan wartawan warga dengan pengamal media sebenar - Fahmi
Etika kewartawanan yang teguh amat penting dalam memastikan kemampanan industri media di negara ini.
Lebih 10,000 orang hilang di bawah runtuhan di Semenanjung Gaza sejak 7 Okt
Perkhidmatan Pertahanan Awam Palestin pada Selasa berkata lebih 10,000 orang masih hilang di bawah runtuhan di seluruh Semenanjung Gaza sejak bermulanya serangan Israel pada 7 Okt 2023.
TLDM lancar penjajaran Pelan Transformasi 15to5
TLDM akan melancarkan dokumen Platform semasa Pameran Perkhidmatan Pertahanan Asia (DSA) 2024 berlangsung pada 6 hingga 9 Mei ini.
Menteri Pertahanan Malaysia, Indonesia bincang keselamatan, kesiapsiagaan masa depan serantau
Pertemuan Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin dan Prabowo Subianto hari ini membincangkan pelbagai isu termasuk cabaran keselamatan dan mempromosi kestabilan di rantau Asia Tenggara.
PM Anwar, Menteri Ekonomi Indonesia sepakat dorong ASEAN-GCC jadi kekuatan ekonomi baharu
Anwar dan Airlangga Hartarto percaya dialog strategik ASEAN-GCC di WEF penting sebagai momentum dalam mengukuhkan kerjasama ASEAN dan GCC, khususnya bagi perdagangan dan pelaburan.
Najib dapat persetujuan Kabinet sebelum luluskan surat sokongan bon US$3 bilion
Mahkamah Tinggi di sini hari ini diberitahu Najib telah mendapatkan persetujuan sebulat suara daripada menteri-menteri Kabinet sebelum meluluskan surat sokongan berhubung penerbitan bon.
Persidangan Ulama Sedunia fokus peranan pemimpin agama memelihara keamanan - Mohd Na'im
Persidangan itu akan menjadi wadah bagi membincangkan peranan pemimpin agama dunia dalam memelihara keamanan dan kesejahteraan sejagat.
AWANI 7:45 [30/04/2024] – SPRM ambil keterangan MB Perlis | Buru tanpa kompromi | PM minta negara Arab tegas
- SPRM ambil keterangan MB Perlis, kes salah guna kuasa
- Siapa yang culas bayar cukai akan diburu, termasuklah wakil rakyat
- PM seru semua negara Arab tegas isu Palestin
- Amukan lelaki berpedang di London, lima kena tikam
- Siapa yang culas bayar cukai akan diburu, termasuklah wakil rakyat
- PM seru semua negara Arab tegas isu Palestin
- Amukan lelaki berpedang di London, lima kena tikam
COVID-19: Disneyland Shanghai pendekkan waktu operasi
Pihak Disneyland mengesahkan premis masih beroperasi namun dengan pengurangan kakitangan buat sementara waktu.
Berita antarabangsa pilihan sepanjang hari ini
Antara pelbagai berita luar negara yang disiarkan di Astro AWANI, berikut adalah antara yang paling menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari ini.
COVID-19: Genap dua tahun sejak perintah berkurung di bandar Wuhan
Tanggal 23 Jan 2020, China mengumumkan penutupan di semua sektor, termasuk penerbangan dan pengangkutan awam.
COVID-19: Petugas makmal yang dijangkiti mungkin penyebab penyebaran virus
Seorang pekerja makmal telah dijangkiti ketika mengambil sampel di dalam gua yang dipenuhi kelawar.
COVID-19: 11 juta penduduk Wuhan jalani ujian saringan
Pihak berkuasa menggerakkan lebih 28,000 petugas kesihatan di sekitar 2,800 kawasan untuk melaksanakan kempen saringan.
PKP: Malaysia wajar ikut jejak Asia Timur, bukan terpengaruh dengan Barat - Prof Jomo
PKP itu adalah satu cara untuk menghadapi wabak yang dilihat tidak tepat dengan apa yang kita nak capai, kata Prof Jomo.
COVID-19: Seluruh 11 juta populasi di Wuhan akan disaring
Ia selepas terdapat jangkitan tempatan pertama dicatatkan lebih setahun di bandar yang dikatakan pencetus kemunculan virus COVID-19.
Puting beliung landa Wuhan, 6 terkorban
Puting beliung yang membawa angin kencang itu turut memusnahkan bangunan kediaman dan harta benda.
Asal-usul COVID-19: Punca dari makmal China tidak berasas - WHO
Laporan WHO menafikan kenyataan Amerika Syarikat dan ahli politik barat yang mendakwa virus itu berasal daripada sebuah makmal.
Benarkah virus mirip COVID-19 ditemui pada kelawar di gua buatan di Thailand?
Satu kajian yang dijalankan para saintis mendakwa koronavirus yang berkait dengan Sars-CoV-2 (COVID-19) mungkin ditemui dari kelawar yang berada di beberapa kawasan di Asia.