Don’t throw baby out with bathwater
Boston Herald
December 3, 2007
By Boston Herald Editorial Staff
Let’s get something straight. The stinging report issued by a national research group last week about the South End biosafety lab makes not a single judgment about the merits of the lab itself or the work that will be conducted there.
And those who find cause in this report to try and kill the $200 million project do a disservice to the cause of national security, given the critical research that will take place at the lab on deadly infectious diseases and pathogens that might one day be used against us.
With that out of the way . . . that does not mean the report by the National Research Council, which reviewed an earlier study that concluded the lab poses no threat to neighborhood safety or public health, is not cause for legitimate concern and attention.
The review slams an earlier report by the National Institutes of Health, prepared in response to a federal lawsuit by opponents of the project. The NRC concluded that the earlier research was “not sound and credible.” In particular, the NRC found flaws in the scientific methodology used by NIH researchers.
The NIH report failed to adequately identify and develop worst-case scenarios, the NRC concluded, considering the impact of an accidental release of certain deadly agents but not others that might pose a greater threat. And it found fault with the NIH evaluation of relative risks associated with siting the lab in a different location.
But the NIH study is not beyond fixing. Already the head of the agency has pledged to tackle the criticisms raised by the NRC. And the agency has yet to issue its final report. When it does so, the points raised in this review surely will be considered.
And while the NRC report should be taken seriously, some of this boils down to scientists arguing over “modeling” and research methodology. As the report itself suggests:
“It is important to recognize that these conclusions are based solely on the Committee’s technical review of the (NIH report), and thus they should not be viewed as statements about the risks of proposed biocontainment facilities in Boston, or in cities more generally.”
A more “sound and credible” evaluation may be in order. But a death sentence for the biosafety lab is not.