We have all seen the popular zombie movies and Sci-Fi television shows such as "The Walking Dead," "Resident Evil," and "The Terminator." But what if there were a laboratory that actually existed and helped create living viruses just like what happened in the films? We know how that story usually ends.

A scientist generates a virus and puts the virus into a clear glass vial, which ends up slipping and shatters on the floor before it’s transported to the freezer. Then the deathly virus escapes the lab and poof, an apocalypse is birthed. This idea should definitely give you goosebumps.

But if it doesn’t, then the fact that the government recently announced that they are Creating legit viruses should raise the hairs on the back of your necks.

Ban to create viruses has been lifted

Three weeks ago, the government lifted a Ban that allowed researchers from the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) to create lethal viruses. The main focus is to discover how easily a selection of deadly viruses can transfer to humans. One of their goals is to generate more vaccinations that can protect humans from lethal diseases.

The New York Times reported that researchers and scientists want to understand how they can prevent the spread of germs and dangerous viruses to humans. They are determined to discover various evaluations of how pathogens can easily infect humans and animals.

They also want to understand how transferrable the viruses can be through the environment.

Moratorium on creating viruses in October 2014

There was a suspension on creating viruses put in place over three years ago, which dates back to October 2014. The reason for the freeze was to halt the procedures of producing viruses due to the irresponsibility of workers in research labs.

A few of those actions included the below.

  • Several of the lab workers were exposed to anthrax in 2014 by mistake from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  • Some of the researchers would not follow protocol when it was mandatory in their work environment.
  • The I.H. found smallpox viruses in vials that were found frozen and forgotten about for 50 years.

According to CNN, Dr.

Francis Collins is currently the director of N.I.H. and he mentioned that the research team will take responsibility to conduct safe research on all procedures in the future. There were 21 projects that were affected when the suspension was put in place. Some of the funded projects included flu viruses, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MES).

Although it was stated the all of the researching and studies will be done in a high-security lab, there are still risks which consist of pathogens evading the lab and causing more dilemmas.

What do you think?
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