What happens if an engineered virus escapes the lab?
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- How do we keep labs that handle dangerous pathogens safe and leak-free? Dig into the ongoing debate over virology research.
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Since the 1970s, researchers have engineered superbugs. While this research could help us prepare for future outbreaks, the stakes of this work are extremely high: if even one dangerous virus escaped a lab, it could cause a global pandemic. So, what can we do to minimize risk? And is the knowledge gained even worth the risk in the first place? Dig into the ongoing debate over virology research.
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Props to all the animators who works in these videos. You guys make it so much easier to understand
These animators need to make a movie or something
@@chargeminecraft *The Ted-ed movie*
Naw man props to the cammera man
I like the character design 🤷♂️
Thank you.
In Denmark, we have a small isolated Island named "Lindholm" and is a biolab working on dangerous substances and virusses. You arrive via one of only two ferries that connect the island to the rest of Denmark, and then you head home. But if something goes wrong the island essentially would shut down and not allow people to enter or leave unless they are here to take care of the situation.
But recently, the DTU (the institute that owns an works the biolab) moved all their work from the island to new campus laboratories to just north of the Copenhagen on Zealand, one of Denmarks main islands that is connected by train, bridges, ferries and airport to the rest of the world. They finished this at around 2019.
While I do understand that the new labs offer a heightened level of security, research oppertunities, better tools and facilities, I would still feel much safer knowing that a lab working on dangerous virusses was isolated at sea, than just north up the highway of one of the worlds capitals
Denmark…
@@beppson9201 ?
@@Hallands. Denmark...
@@dudeaverage5344 😂What is it with you and Denmark?
Hello fellow northern neighbor. The German "Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut" with its Biosafety level 4 lab is also located on a tiny island called "Riems", even though there was a road connection build in the 70s. Interestingly, both institutes are research facilities for veterinary health.
The older I get the more I realize that the biggest threat to humanity is incompetence
I agree but I immediately thought " Who are you going to get that wants to work there"? and also the thought, try anything enough and there are bound to be mistakes.
Yes. That's why I can't approve of having a nuclear plant in my country given how corrupt and incompetent our govt. is.
Intent is first
or competence with wrong intent
Or themselves
If a virus was about to escape a lab, I would just hope the lab was a 4x4 grid, with doors on adjacent sides of each room and a handle to destroy each room.
this joke actually hits so hard but only if you get it
Hint: Ted ed's riddle video...
Finally a Ted ed riddle joke that is not about green eyes
And that the room you begin in is not infected, that's a key point.
And everyone who solved that riddle can save the world 😂
I worked in an anthrax lab a good number of years back, and one of the more terrifying aspects of Bacillus anthracis is just how durable and long lasting the spores can be. While studies don't always agree, the lifespan of the spores in soil is somewhere between decades and centuries.
Luckily, human-to-human transmission of anthrax (from infected individual to non) is virtually unheard of, so it'll never go pandemic. But the fact that it takes several human lifetimes for the spores to no longer be viable is pretty daunting from a safety/clean up perspective.
Can't the spores be incinerated? That's where most biohazard waste end up.
@@_Just_Another_Guy They can. I know for a fact that industrial autoclaves can properly sterilize anthrax spores.
The issue is that you can't autoclave an entire building. Additionally, anthrax spores are commonly found in the soil of cattle farms, so if that land is later developed into housing or other structures, you have a big health risk to the construction crews and/or future residents.
.
I hope you didn’t got infected if you were what were the symptoms I wonder
What happens? We get locked in our homes for nearly 2 years
Are you Chinese? Cause lockdowns lasted at most 3 months
Like it sucked, but some people pretend like it was 10x longer than what it was.
We don’t need to do that. We all know how it was. No need to exaggerate it to make it sound even more difficult
3.
3 Years.
And anyone who suggests “maybe this came from a lab” is smeared as a conspiracy theorist
@@plotheplayer6462 who’s currently been in lockdown since 2020?
@@jtgd shoot, good point
I like how this addresses a potential, hypothetical elephant in the room without acknowledging the one that just ransacked the planet.
I don't know man, I feel TED has deliberately chosen topics that orient toward a particular political trend.
if a virus like covid-19 was engineered to be a bioweapon and broke out I would probably not be alive right now. We would however know it was engineered from the genetic code
I find it especially funny because covid checks all the boxes they mention of a super bug and yet they don't mention it at all.
careful, you are flirting with misinformation
edit for the few people who didn't get it: it's sarcasm
Great observation👌🏼
I remember that people were not allowed to even speculate if the virus is a lab leak. What a memory for us and what a lesson for the society and future generations.
True, when the top most official is corrupt anything is possible
It's still not a lab leak.
you personally were allowed to speculate, but news broadcasters couldn’t bc there wasnt any evidence yet
@@clayel1 there wasn't any about the bat soup either. And aren't scientist free to discuss and debate ideas? If bat soup and lab leak were both theories, why suppress one and preach the other?
Also, wasn't Facebook censoring news about it?
I remember when anyone who said that the virus could have leaked from the lab were being banned from social media for spreading misinformation.
Governments would need to be honest and transparent for any of these disaster countermeasures to work.
Researchers also need to actually want to save lives and not just grind a paycheck by p hacking papers to get research funding from the politically well connected.
Too bad that the exact opposite happened during covid.
Mistakes like this have happened and will happen again. It’s a shame there’s so much ego involved in the current situation that we might never know what happened.
The virus genome shows no signs of human engineering.
Boom, wonder no longer.
Now that doesn't mean that it couldn't have come from a lab, but it was not being modified in the lab.
i am ur 100th like mate
China
One detail to note is that at the end we see labs isolated on the tops of mountains, which to me shows that it’s a good idea for this sort of research to take place in remote areas far from human civilization. The commute is a nightmare, but this will minimize the risk of leaks compared to if the lab were in the heart of a major city or something like that
the russian lab which is talking is isolated on barren island in sea....
Interesting. Didn't know there had been so many documented and public data on the accidents. Because of this, a probability density function can be constructed of the likelihood of an accident occurring. This, then, can be used to find the worst-case scenario of one of these labs. That is, a cost-benefit analysis can be used to determine if one of these labs is worth the risk that they're investigating.
Like the P4 lab in Wuhan, China where the same city COVID-19 pandemic began?
Probably none of them are
They've all probably done this and still decided that it's worth the risk. They're balancing the possibility of causing an "artificial" pandemic with the possibility of being prepared for a naturally occurring one.
Just save the money from the lab and spend it on emergency preparation
@@andrej2375 The lab is part of emergency preparation though. It's doing research that can help prepare for future pandemics.
The prevention of future lab leaks requires international cooperation, accessible records of funding, research, and safety methods, and open independent investigations. The worst things that can happen are lack of cooperation, lack of admissions of funding, lack of disclosure of research, attempts to change the commonly accepted definition of “gain-of-function,” asking funders to investigate their own research, and censorship of scientific debate. All of these things failed in the past several years, as governments, agencies, and individuals tried to hide their culpability in Covid-19.
Cov19 exposed the deep corruption in government, media and big pharma to exploit and control the populous.
L bozo
I don't have any faith that these research institutes would willingly admit or disclose any information about a lab leak without covering it up themselves first if ever there could be an outbreak that arose from it.
@@8stormy5 bot
Do you really think China will cooperate?/ smh
One idea I have is to ensure viruses are studied in geographically isolated areas. Pick an island away from civilization, build a lab there, and pass laws to ensure travel to and from the island takes at least 14 days. This means airplanes are prohibited from landing there, only boats that meet certain requirements are allowed to and from the island, etc.
4:59 THE BEACONS ARE LIT! Gondor calls for aid!
What virus made their head so small?
Zika virus probably
@@varung1167 daaaaaamn, now I feel ashamed for laughing
Malaria? 💀
Nothing could possibly go wrong
Content is amazing as well as thought provoking!!!
However, the animators stole the show for me….it was so much clever & engaging that it perfectly served the top-goals you guys have - educating!!!
A big thumbs up to the animators once again!!!! 👍🏻
Thank you for bringing this to us all!
Kudos to the animation team. Brilliant as always.
Imagine a year ago this video would of been taken down and this YT channel would have been banned.
true
The all knowing Dr. Fauci cannot allow you to spread COVID misinformation. The first amendment need not apply.
Wah
@@Revoc "spreading misinformation" except the misinformation ended up being the truth
The animations are just so on point!
These animations are insane. I love it.
What’s even more concerning is if there are nefarious actors at play.. not merely incompetent humans
It doesn't even require incompetence, simply greed. With all of the conspiracy theories about the release of the COVID-19 virus, consider some underpaid low-level worker at the virology institute who is directed to dispose of a number of animal carcasses and, seeing an opportunity to make some money, sneaks them out of the institute and sells them at the wet market instead of taking them for incineration (or whatever the approved disposal method is).
I do agree about the study of virology in an isolated area but for the purpose of research and not biowarfare.
...talking about Anthrax, in USA this had cause lot of anxiety. Remember the last postal incident in this regard and where the analysis of this dangerous microbe was conducted??? Was this facility equipped with level 4 safety? Luckily, the outcome was negative!
No Dave Chappelle was snorting mysterious white powder in envelopes lol
Point is that a facility that was not equipped was engaged in a task which was/could be dangerous. Question is what if that was a true Anthrax threat??
@@WhiteBloggerBlackSpecs
The real question is, Belladona Anthrax or John Bush Anthrax?
Anthrax is a biosafety level 3 pathogen not a biosafety level 4 pathogen therefore biosafety level 4 containment is not necessary to safely work with anthrax
wow! the animation looks really good! and the video is very informative, interesting, and well explained! keep up with the good work
There could be better sound design.
I think that it's worth mentioning that the title of this video is what happens when an engineered virus escapes the lab, but bacillus anthracis more commonly known as anthrax is also mentioned at the start of this video, and anthrax is in fact a bacteria. Speaking of anthrax I got a letter in the post from the same post office affected by the 2001 anhtrax attacks between 18 September and 9 October 2001. I didn't know how to react when the person who handed me that letter said check the envelope for white powder but I quickly realized that it was serious and not something to be taken lightly. Fortunately it was a false alarm and the envelope addressed to me from the same US post office affected by the 2001 anthrax attacks did not contain any anthrax spores but it was an experience that I will never forget.
Thank you to all these colossal titans performing this skit for us.
Those smallpox samples were mine. I went to go get some ice cream and forgot that I left them there back in ‘87.
One way to help would be to do the research in secluded areas like up in the mountains or Antarctica because if I gets out, it won’t survive.
Damn genius🤡
Antartica after melting out thanks to climate change and letting millions of deadly viruses on the oceans: 🥰😍😘
bingo
it helps, but all it takes is one scientist to accidentally take sometime home and then theres an outbreak
this stuff can only be reliably prevented with a lot of security and double/triple-checks
The cold would only preserve the viruses, not kill them
Artstyle and animation are sooo good! Direction, storyboard and animation by Kevin Herrmann... must be nice to be this talented
The animations help me understand a lot and make videos much more interesting.Thanks!
Agreed!
The animation helps a lot to understand. Very convenient to concentrate.
I guess we've already experienced this recently, no?
no.
not really
Yes we just did and there's more coming.
yes
COVID-19 by China
I think we all know exactly what happens......
I'm now studying about virus and what a coincidence. I'm very happy to see this video. It really helps. Thanx
loved the The Lord of the Rings reference with the beacons
wouldn't it be a good idea to just have their research facilities on a secluded area far from civilization like an island or in mountains, and then have them sign something beforehand saying that if there is a leak, they have to stay in that facility until everything is clear? so an outbreak won't start? perhaps it's easier said than done lol
You're gonna have people and stuff coming and going from the lab. There's pretty much no way around that.
That presumes that politicians and bureaucrats would be willing to stay put
It's about cost and politics:
-If it's exceedingly dangerous, there needs to be a justification for the risk, which impacts project funding. Then the "risk" and "threat" of the project is low-balled so it can get a greenlight.
-If such a dangerous concept is put to work, the controls need to not exasperate the project funding. Islands are expensive to work from and only governments seem to use them, like Gitmo, Alkatraz, etc - and the funding costs are astronomical.
-If the controls fail in the event of an "error", employees may fear for thier career, managers could fear for the project - and despite anything they sign, they may decide that they'd risk all or nothing in order to save face.
The problem is almost entirely human. Bioscience is expensive and rife with insider-ness and corporate meddling.
Counter-intuitively, it's actually more important that you have plenty of infrastructure to immediately replace anything that breaks or goes wrong with the biosecurity measures.
@@scrambo6182 whatever protective infrastructure you're talking about is still better off as another attached layer of the isolated lab - there's no arguing for putting the place in close contact with civilian infrastructure, none - no excuses for not taking the precaution to build an entire self sufficient isolated place to put your horrible biohazards - be able to keep them disconnected from society or don't build them at all
Best animation style TED has ever used
Imagine this video 2 years ago
3:52 The ratio of head to body is hilarious.
The tiny heads are a nice touch.
Don’t put these labs near major population centres
Ni hao
The EPPP work seems like an unmoral work that just brings risks.
Case in point, 2020.
But it also has argument defending it. Moral and ethics are always considered when it comes to research after all. it's just whether it's worth the risk short term or long term
the morality is that the next pandemic wont be as disastrous as covid because we would actually know what to do, and politicians and health agencies wouldnt confuse everyone with conflicting advice that changes by the second. we tried to partially implement some of the ideas we had learnt, and did it so poorly that the lockdowns that should really have lasted 3 months max lasted 2 years on and off. they would also start on time. any future pandemic hopefully occurs after the next technological revolution, so less people are required to meet up during any future lockdown.
@@flandrescarlet506 Its not necessarily guaranteed that the Covid-19 Outbreak was from EPPP work. It was most likely from a lab it seem however unlike what some governments said...
The risk isn't worth it @@Anverse-14
This is giving me déjà Vu to a time known as that year 2020…
I feel like the animators' choice to give the people small heads indicates what side they fall on this issue. lol Thanks for the info and push for collaboration, cooperation, and transparency!
Dude ... The animation... Wow
The animation is mesmerizing 🎉
These are leaks or errors the public knows about. Imagine what we don’t know. As a scientist that does wet lab work, we underestimate human stupidity and incompetence. Technology has allowed us to create so many great things but technology has also given us the power to create bad things so it’s only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens
Thank god this has never happened on a global scale until now. Happy January 2020 everyone!
💀
🥂
Happy New Year!! Horray to the best decade in modern history!
Thank god, i was wondering what i should do now that my engineered virus escaped my lab
moshi moshi
Me too, really glad resources like this exist
The visuals of this video are extraordinarily good.
Okay, I don't know if the "lighting of the beacons" reference is intentional, but it is still great.
This already happened didn’t it?
2 year ago, and no mention of it at all
@@kirangouds ZIKA virus does that. Also engineered.
@@kirangouds shhhhhhhh
......that's "Misinformation" .
Well if you watch the video, several instances in the past are shown. So, yes?
I don’t know there’s no proof so.. 🤔
So essentially the history of the covid leak
We are so screwed.
Oh hey, anybody remember the lab on the mountain with the bridge riddle? Good thing that place was super far off and not in some city
Thank you for this video! 😀🌹
We know what happens.
"If even one... escaped a lab, it could cause a global pandemic."
Fauci should be accountable
We were there, like, all of us
@@kirangoudswhat did he do?
@@Stampyboyzhe funded the gain of function research with US tax dollars and lied about literally everything
the animators always do such nice work!!
People that work with viruses that can infect humans should not go back home every night. They should be required to stay quarantined for the duration of their work and the amount of time needed for symptoms to show up after working with such viruses as a precaution. Only be cleared to go after they have been confirmed non infected.
You know that can be years, right? My brother worked for a company that made treatments. If a project started today and you just had a kid by the time the trials would be ready for market the kid would likely by choosing colleges.
the transition is crazy
Absolutely love the art on this one.
I wonder what prompted this video.
TED_Ed: *Scientists spilling stuff*
NileRed: 😅🙄
🤣
4:00 I wonder if they are okay and how do you even react to that-
3 different researchers have independently done that by accident, and some of them died
An accident with a needle like that is called a needlestick accident, and according to wikipedia, accidents like that happen a lot and in some particular cases can lead to actual PSTD.
I feel really bad for them, that has to be a really horrible way to die :(
1:35 Yoshi battles the pink robots makes sense now
this video is so amazingly well put
The new animations are great. Now what about a video on how fast our tech is progressing and what will AI do for the human race.
It would seem we have already answered this question years ago.
For some reason, this seems to be a shocker for a lot of people? Maybe if they removed their head from their "you know what".
I love the portrayment of the scientists 👌🏾
I would prefer ePPP to continue, but labs should be added with additional anti-leak
AMAZING ANIMATION, LOVED IT
It's so interesting that this information is being shared now - especially when you consider that the WEF funds some of the TED Ed videos. Very interesting!
TED out here with the most creative animators
2:51 “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
best tactic to tackle human errors is
no human in the loop in the first place
This kind of research needs public consent in my opinion
I know the answer, We lie about it, and call everyone a conspiracy theorist LOL
It's like no one reads Mary Shelley anymore. They forget that the monster in Frankenstein wasn't the creature, it was the doctor/scientist.
damn that's true, the monster was innocent
27 minutes ago, and it's one of the best Ted-Ed animation styles
Eh, I'm personally not a fan. The tiny heads look silly
Absolutely amazing animation.
Been there done that. Wauhan 2019
The first coronavirus outbreak was SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)
In November 2002, it started in Guangdong, China.
Second was MERScov (middle east respiratory syndrome).
It started in the middle eastern countries.
The third major coronavirus outbreak was COVID-19 from Wuhan, China
Other coronavirus related outbreak was H1N1, Avian Flu and the SARS-cov2.
Rob Reid has an awesome episode (An Arsenal of Plagues) on this on his After On podcast. His TED Talk is great too.
Rather than argue about Wuhan, we should discuss what the resolution of this problem should be.
Resolution? It was done ON PURPOSE.
@@dpie Resolution as in better checks to prevent an escape. For example, why was only 1 technician and a paper memo used? What if we used 2 technician and 3 memos to different people making sure to include a secretary? These are common sense from manufacturering things like airplanes and the chips inside your phone.
Oh boy the comments are going to be fun on this video
We literally already lived this exact scenario like a few years ago…
I guess properly acknowledging and studying all the lab leaks is the first step to try and avoid them in the future
COVID 19 happens, that's what.
Covid: “am I a joke to you?”
It's naive to assume that authoritarian governments would ever provide the transparency to make an international database or early-warning system.
5:03 Love the LOTR reference.
The animation is amazing
I appreciate the video but as with so many technical occupations there are hazards that only someone working there would understand. The general public cannot understand because they all cannot work there so we have to trust the experts. Hopefully the benefit outweighs the risk. Also, do we have any choice about this? I don't remember voting on this or being asked my opinion of whether these labs should exist.
This is fantastic.
Remember when they shut down any conversation about a lab leak? Pepperidge farm remembers
LOL
Those people said the virus was a biological WMD, it's not the same thing as saying it came from a lab
We literally had one escape in the end of 2019 which messed with the first half of 2020 and no one in china was blamed for it
I am just surprised how this video is not taken down for policy violation?
Title:What happens if an engineered virus escaped the lab?
Me: We already know from 3 years 👽
There isn’t enough evidence to determine an origin yet everything is still a theory
@@theholyemu3716no it’s pretty obvious especially since the accused bats aren’t anywhere near Wuhan