NIH chief on biolab: 'Do this right'
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, offered the clearest sign yet that a controversial laboratory being built by Boston University won't open anytime soon.
Addressing a blue ribbon panel of scientists convened to review the project, Zerhouni said he had no expectation that the board would "rubber stamp" his agency's earlier conclusion that the lab would present no threat to the surrounding South End neighborhood. The centerpiece of the project is a Biosafety Level-4 lab where scientists can work on the world's deadliest germs, including Ebola, plague, and anthrax.
"We are not here because we want you to rubber stamp what we have done," Zerhouni said. "We need to do this right, even if it takes a long time."
"Basically, you should be tough," the NIH chief said. "I can't say it in any other way. There are no foregone conclusions here."
Construction of the facility on Albany Street, which is being underwritten by the NIH, is 77 percent complete.
NIH named the blue ribbon panel after an indepedent scientific agency sharply criticized NIH's earlier environmental review of the project.
The initial meeting of the panel is continuing in Washington and is being streamed online.
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Thats good news. This Bio lab has been funny business from the start. BU thought they could just throw this lab in a minority populated part of the city and breeze through questioning about safety. Im glad to see this shady project under scrutiny because too many lives are at risk if something were to ever go wrong and BU already has bad history with lab accidents. This building in my opinion is a bomb waiting explode i hope mayor "mubbles" is around that day to see the fruits of his works.
Have Dr. Zerhouni in case of an accident which i'm sure B. U. will say will never happen, ask who will respond ,who's the safety net ? and what training have they had ?, then ask Mayor Menino the same question !!
I have that answer lol, the Boston Police will respond. The safety plan is called "OSKI" (Operation Shoot & Kill Infected). Way to go "Mumbles"
This strikes me as a propaganda ploy on the part of BU and NIH. They are making all appearances as if they are doing a thorough and impartial assessment, but I notice that they did not invite anyone on their blue ribbon panel who is opposed to their plan of spreading these bioterrorism agents in labs across the country. NIH and BU have now done 4 risk assessments and they heard the same criticism of their risk assessment since the filing of the first Draft Environmental Impact Statement in 2003.
The decision to open this lab is not based on the science, but is purely a political one. Just as many of his fellow Bush appointees, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni is in place to push the White House’s political decision through his agency. Similar recent political decisions got us the Iraq War; breached levees in New Orleans; 10,000 Ground Zero rescue workers now sick with lung disease because the air quality reports were scrubbed of any warnings by the White House; an EPA and NASA that are forbidden to authenticate global warming; an FDA that blocks the approval of safe birth control methods. Putting these bioterrorism agents in the hands of even more people increases the risk that they will be used in an attack. Treatments for these diseases are already in the pipeline without this propagation of bioterrorism labs.
One only need look at the membership of this panel (a large percentage of whom have financial & professional interests in the biodefense industry) to see that a rubber stamp is exactly NIH's intent. Zerhouni knows the outcome from this group will be an endorsement, therefore it is quite easy for him to politically posture with nonsense about this gerrymandered panel doing things "right".
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