Protect the public from high-risk research on pathogens at UW-Madison lab

The following was written by Professors Justin Kinney and Richard Ebright, two experts in this area of research. The article appeared in The Wisconsin State Journal on 9/6/23.

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 Laboratory accidents happen. They happen because scientists are human, and humans make mistakes. The overwhelming majority of scientific research is safe, and only a small fraction of laboratory accidents pose risks to the public. But accidents involving potential pandemic pathogens can have catastrophic consequences. Potential pandemic pathogens are viruses and bacteria that, if released, could cause a devastating pandemic. 

A bill before the Wisconsin Legislature, Senate Bill 401, will protect the public from the most significant hazards of research on potential pandemic pathogens -- without having significant costs or adverse impacts. The bill is commonsense legislation that deserves broad-based support. 

SB 401 contains two important provisions. 

The first provision will establish public transparency for research on potential pandemic pathogens. Currently, laboratories doing this research are not required to inform state or local governments about where the research is performed, which pathogens they possess or the potential public health impacts if a pathogen escapes. SB 401 will require these laboratories to provide this information to the state Department of Health Services.

Disclosure of this information is essential. First responders need this information to help them avoid accidental infection when responding to emergencies. Health care providers also need this information to diagnose and prevent the spread of laboratory-acquired infections. This knowledge could make the difference between rapid pathogen containment and an uncontrolled disease outbreak. 

The bill's second provision prohibits "gain of function" research on potential pandemic pathogens. This is research that makes these pathogens even more dangerous than they already are. The bill would ban high-risk research in Wisconsin aimed at preparing for new pathogens The measure targets studies like those by UW-Madison scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka involving bird flu and ferrets. 

 

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, recently expressed concerns in a Wisconsin State Journal column that this prohibition would hamper biomedical research. These concerns are unfounded. "Gain of function" research on potential pandemic pathogens constitutes less than 0.01% of biomedical research and is not used for developing vaccines or treatments for disease. 

Based on publicly available information, the bill's second provision will affect just one laboratory in Wisconsin -- a virology lab at UW-Madison led by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka. This provision is important because the Kawaoka laboratory performs "gain of function" research that poses extreme risks to public health. 

In 2011, the Kawaoka laboratory created genetically engineered avian influenza viruses that can transmit efficiently among mammals. Natural avian influenza viruses can kill up to two-thirds of the humans they infect, but they transmit poorly from person to person. If the genetically engineered avian influenza viruses constructed by the Kawaoka laboratory were to escape, they could cause a pandemic far more devastating than COVID-19. The U.S. federal government has -- for decades -- failed to enact legislation that protects the public from accidents at laboratories that study and genetically engineer potential pandemic pathogens. Shockingly, federal inaction continues despite U.S. intelligence agencies assessing that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been caused by an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, doing exactly this kind of research. 

States must therefore act to protect their residents. By establishing public transparency for high-risk pathogen research, and by prohibiting the highest-risk type of pathogen research, SB 401 will provide urgently needed protections for the residents of Wisconsin. 

Justin Kinney is an associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Richard Ebright is a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. They are co-founders of Biosafety Now: https://biosafetynow.org/