[ad_1]
This is the perfect start to a movie about the Apocalypse: an accident that occurred at a government secret research center on biological weapons. And it happened in Russia. Kind of. Not really.
On Monday, a gas explosion took place at Vector, the national center for research in virology and biotechnology, in the scientific city of Koltsovo, about 20 km from Novosibirsk, Russia's third most populous city.
The research center is one of only two places in the world authorized to Smallpox viruses that cause smallpox. The other is a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
According to the independent Russian news agency Interfax, on September 16, a gas explosion set off a fire on the fifth floor of a Vector building. The resulting fire only burned an area of about 30 square meters (320 square feet) and injured one person, who was admitted to the hospital.
The explosion however was not related to scientific activities – it occurred in a sanitary and disinfection area undergoing renovation. The mayor of the scientific city, Nikolai Krasnikov, told Interfax that the location of the fire was not actively used and that there was no biologically dangerous material.
Reporting on the event is consistent across the board, with the local Science Town press service and the institute itself having confirmed this information. A federal investigation is underway to determine if a breach of occupational safety requirements may have led to the accident.
So, do internet users now panic that this news has reached the English-speaking world?
Absolutely. Especially among the titles that use an evocative phrasing "Explosive Rock Research Facilities" and a translation error that states that "all the glass in the building was broken". In fact, Interfax has only stated (in Russian) that some the Windows in the building were broken, without specifying how much.
Despite everything, the confusion resulted in a massive panic on Twitter – hashtag & # 39; biological weapons & # 39;, whoever?
In fact, Vector – one of the leading research centers in its field – is a huge multi-building center employing more than 1,600 people working on many biological research projects that involve more than just flasks. smallpox.
The chances of the blast being plagued in the world seem extremely small – not to mention that if a dangerous flask breaks out in a fire, the microbes would burn up, uh. You know.
But it is not as if the danger of bioterror was imaginary. Smallpox still appears as an extremely contagious and devastating disease of history books, a reputation that directly rivals its success story as the very first disease we eradicated from the face of our planet.
We understand that the decision to keep the rest Smallpox Virus stocks for research purposes have been highly controversial, as is DNA research that seeks to know how to replenish this virus (uh, can not we).
In addition, everyone remembers the mysterious explosion that occurred last month at a weapons testing site in Russia, and the statements made at the time were very confusing.
Added to this is the historical reputation of Vector as a secret agency for biological weapons research, aligned with the government, created in 1974; the fact that it also houses the Ebola virus, bird flu, anthrax and a host of other bad guys; and once in 2004, a Vector employee died as a result of an accidental injection of the Ebola virus.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has allowed Vector scientists to conserve smallpox only because they have a biosafety center 4 (the highest level). Collaboration with the WHO apparently involves a set of rules and inspections every two years.
So, while this may seem worrisome, it is highly unlikely that this event was as catastrophic as some people might have you believe. Perhaps there was a relatively small gas explosion and a small localized fire quickly extinguished, and the biologically hazardous materials housed in this higher-level facility were nowhere near the accident site.
Or maybe there is a horde of mutant and mutant virus mutant zombies that are already shaking in the vicinity of the research center.
If the gas explosion at Vector actually triggers a smallpox pandemic, I guess I should print this article and eat it, but at this point it will probably not be on anyone's list of priorities anymore.
[ad_2]
Source link