In 2020, the Global BioLabs initiative, launched by a group of academics, set itself the task of identifying the facilities in which the most dangerous pathogens are studied, responsible for infectious diseases for which no treatment is sometimes available. available, of the Ebola, Lassa or smallpox type. These laboratories are said to be “biosafety level 4” (BSL-4 or P4 in France). Filippa Lentzos (King’s College, London) and her colleagues had identified, in 2021, 59 BSL-4 laboratories in operation, under construction or planned, in 23 countries. In his latest report, published in March 2023Global BioLabs has 10 more, now spread across 27 countries in total, and calls for stronger international oversight of their activities.
A session on the origin of Covid-19 organized on Tuesday April 18 at the French National Academy of Medicine echoed these concerns, with several experts calling for a halt to certain experiments aimed at making viruses and bacteria more pathogenic or transmissible – sometimes referred to as “gain of function” – which, moreover, are not always carried out in the most secure laboratories.
An increase in the number of these installations had already taken place following attacks, with mailings of letters containing anthrax in the United States in 2001, and after the epidemic of SARS, in 2003, in Asia. This time, “The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a new laboratory construction boom BSL-4 »says the Global BioLabs report. “The most striking thing is that the majority of laboratories under construction and planned are located in countries that did not have such facilities, and which sometimes also do not have the regulatory framework to conduct these activities “, notes Filippa Lentzos. The report cites, among the aspirants to the BSL-4 club, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Spain.
Dual risk little taken into account in France
“It is not a bad thing in itself that these laboratories are built and that they provide better conditions for researchers to study dangerous pathogenssays biosafety researcher Filippa Lentzos. But these activities involve safety, security and dual-use risks. You have to be sure that the benefits outweigh these risks. » Note that, according to Global BioLabs, and as in the nuclear sector, safety (biosafety) denotes all “containment measures and practices that can be used to prevent the accidental release or unintentional exposure to biological agents or biological material” ; Security (biosecurity) concerns the “prevention of unauthorized access or loss, theft, misuse, misappropriation or intentional release” of these pathogens; dual use refers to the fact that certain civilian research may have military and/or terrorist fallout and be diverted for this purpose. In France, the definitions of biosafety and biosecurity are reversed, which can be a source of confusion.
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