Opinion: Manipulating viruses and risking pandemics is too dangerous. It's time to stop.

Kevin Esvelt · 6 Oct 2021

Kevin Esvelt did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Research programmes that identify or create pandemic-capable viruses teach the world how to make them, and should stop.

Their wordsBut perhaps the biggest question of all isn’t being asked insistently enough: Why is anyone trying to teach the world how to make viruses that could kill millions of people?
Our reading
The spread of pandemic-capable biology should be treated as a matter of international security, in the way nuclear physics is.

Their wordsLike nuclear physics, with its potential for global catastrophe when put to destructive ends, the proliferation of pandemic biology ought to be considered a matter of international security.

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