Accidental Blogger

Boston’s very own deadly disease factory: coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Boston University won final federal approval Thursday for a controversial plan to build a research laboratory in the city’s South End that would handle some of the world’s most dangerous and exotic germs.

The decision by the National Institutes of Health secures $128 million in federal funding for the lab, which will be part of a national group of facilities that will study infectious diseases such as ebola and the West Nile virus.

University officials said the lab will be safe and will provide needed research into contagious illnesses and the risk they might pose in the hands of bioterrorists.

But opponents have criticized the decision to build the lab in a densely populated urban neighborhood.

Oh, right, Boston’s too densely populated to handle this.  Funny, I don’t recall living a block away from the CDC in Atlanta being much of a problem in the 2001-02 academic year.  Seriously–if they do this right this is absolutely fantastic for BU, and very good for Boston (economically) and people all over the world (healthwise), and a problem for no one. There’s no reason that security should be an issue, and the geographic area should face no increased health risks. I remember freshman year there being discussion of what would happen if terrorists attacked the CDC. After all, they kept all these dangerous things there: anthrax, ebola, smallpox, etc. Could they sneak stuff out? No; security protocols. Could an explosion release diseases? No; an explosion big enough to break stuff like that out from deep underground where it was buried would kill the germs instantly. I trust Boston University and its governmental money dispensing onlookers not to do anything foolish–people will be safe.