What happens if an engineered virus escapes the lab?

How do we keep labs that handle dangerous pathogens safe and leak-free? Dig into the ongoing debate over virology research.

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Since the 1970s, researchers have engineered superbugs. While this research could help us prepare for future outbreaks, the stakes of this work are extremely high: if even one dangerous virus escaped a lab, it could cause a global pandemic. So, what can we do to minimize risk? And is the knowledge gained even worth the risk in the first place? Dig into the ongoing debate over virology research.

Directed by Kevin Herrmann, AIM Creative Studios.

This video made possible in collaboration with the Forethought Foundation

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch, Tejas Dc, Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li, Cristóbal Moenne, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann - they-them, Siamak Hajizadeh, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater, Sandra Tersluisen, Zhexi Shan, Bárbara Nazaré, Andrea Feliz and Victor E Karhel.

[christopherrhodes]

What happens? We get locked in our homes for nearly 2 years

[cashout]

The older I get the more I realize that the biggest threat to humanity is incompetence

[syrupsandwichhhh]

If a virus was about to escape a lab, I would just hope the lab was a 4x4 grid, with doors on adjacent sides of each room and a handle to destroy each room.

[Calupp]

I like how this addresses a potential, hypothetical elephant in the room without acknowledging the one that just ransacked the planet.

[GaudiFanYAY]

In Denmark, we have a small isolated Island named "Lindholm" and is a biolab working on dangerous substances and virusses. You arrive via one of only two ferries that connect the island to the rest of Denmark, and then you head home. But if something goes wrong the island essentially would shut down and not allow people to enter or leave unless they are here to take care of the situation.

But recently, the DTU (the institute that owns an works the biolab) moved all their work from the island to new campus laboratories to just north of the Copenhagen on Zealand, one of Denmarks main islands that is connected by train, bridges, ferries and airport to the rest of the world. They finished this at around 2019.

While I do understand that the new labs offer a heightened level of security, research oppertunities, better tools and facilities, I would still feel much safer knowing that a lab working on dangerous virusses was isolated at sea, than just north up the highway of one of the worlds capitals

[zoe]

Props to all the animators who works in these videos. You guys make it so much easier to understand

[Jobobn]

I worked in an anthrax lab a good number of years back, and one of the more terrifying aspects of Bacillus anthracis is just how durable and long lasting the spores can be. While studies don't always agree, the lifespan of the spores in soil is somewhere between decades and centuries.

Luckily, human-to-human transmission of anthrax (from infected individual to non) is virtually unheard of, so it'll never go pandemic. But the fact that it takes several human lifetimes for the spores to no longer be viable is pretty daunting from a safety/clean up perspective.

[ScytheNoire]

Governments would need to be honest and transparent for any of these disaster countermeasures to work.

[allenuic]

I remember that people were not allowed to even speculate if the virus is a lab leak. What a memory for us and what a lesson for the society and future generations.

[garg]

One detail to note is that at the end we see labs isolated on the tops of mountains, which to me shows that it’s a good idea for this sort of research to take place in remote areas far from human civilization. The commute is a nightmare, but this will minimize the risk of leaks compared to if the lab were in the heart of a major city or something like that

[gstlb]

Mistakes like this have happened and will happen again. It’s a shame there’s so much ego involved in the current situation that we might never know what happened.

[UnderhillKoufax]

The prevention of future lab leaks requires international cooperation, accessible records of funding, research, and safety methods, and open independent investigations. The worst things that can happen are lack of cooperation, lack of admissions of funding, lack of disclosure of research, attempts to change the commonly accepted definition of “gain-of-function, ” asking funders to investigate their own research, and censorship of scientific debate. All of these things failed in the past several years, as governments, agencies, and individuals tried to hide their culpability in Covid-19.

[posthocprior]

Interesting. Didn't know there had been so many documented and public data on the accidents. Because of this, a probability density function can be constructed of the likelihood of an accident occurring. This, then, can be used to find the worst-case scenario of one of these labs. That is, a cost-benefit analysis can be used to determine if one of these labs is worth the risk that they're investigating.

[neuro.weaver]

What happens? 2020 happens, that's what.

[sarahhachmuth]

the animators always do such nice work!! <3

[jwhite]

I feel like the animators' choice to give the people small heads indicates what side they fall on this issue. lol Thanks for the info and push for collaboration, cooperation, and transparency!

[mohitmathur]

Content is amazing as well as thought provoking!!!
However, the animators stole the show for me….it was so much clever & engaging that it perfectly served the top-goals you guys have - educating!!!
A big thumbs up to the animators once again!!!! 👍🏻

[eliesaad]

Kudos to the animation team. Brilliant as always.

[masumgaji]

The animation helps a lot to understand. Very convenient to concentrate.

[SlickDiecast]

Thank you for bringing this to us all!