Lab leaks of bioweapons are a clear and present danger

“Clear and present danger” was a concept written in a majority opinion by US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1919, with reference to circumstances in which free speech may be limited. Most people are more familiar with the 1989 novel and 1994 movie of the same name. This term is used here to emphasise the importance of immediate international action to ban dangerous genetic manipulation activities without blocking beneficial biological research. Way back in 1999, Health Canada reported 5,000 cases of accidental laboratory infections and 190 deaths worldwide. These did not lead to a pandemic because of immediate containment measures taken instead of denial and suppression.

The Chimera in Greek mythology is a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature, a lion, with a goat head protruding from its back, and a tail with a snake’s head was slayed by the hero Bellerophon. In the movie Mission Impossible 2 the cure for a Chimera virus is called

Bellerophon. Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare should replace the term “Bacteriological” in the title by “Biological” to include viruses and other pathogens. US Federal Biocontainment Regulations earlier included 19 agents and toxins harmful to human health, another 18 primarily to animal health, and many to plant health. There will be many more now. Chimera virus creation, gain of