How a deliberate pandemic could crush societies and what to do about it
How a deliberate pandemic could crush societies and what to do about it
Pandemics can begin in many ways. A wild animal could infect a hunter, or a farm animal might spread a pathogen to a market worker. Researchers in a lab or in the field could be exposed to viruses and unwittingly pass them to others. Natural spillovers and accidents have been responsible for every historical plague, each of which spread from a single individual to afflict much of humanity. But the devastation from past outbreaks pales in comparison to the catastrophic harm that could be inflicted by malicious individuals intent on causing new pandemics.
Kevin M. Esvelt is a Polymath Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. He is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and a co-founder of SecureBio Inc and the SecureDNA Foundation. The creator of synthetic ecosystems to rapidly evolve molecular tools, he is best known for inventing CRISPR-based gene drive, a technology capable of spreading engineered changes from laboratory organisms to entire wild populations. Esvelt’s laboratory and affiliated nonprofit organisations seek to safeguard biotechnology against mistrust and misuse by pioneering new ways of working with communities to apply ecological engineering techniques, developing early-warning systems to reliably detect catastrophic biological threats, and applying cryptographic methods to enable secure and universal DNA synthesis screening. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Harvard University.
Disclaimer: This publication was originally published on Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists website. The views, information and opinions expressed in this publication are the author’s/authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the GCSP or the members of its Foundation Council. The GCSP is not responsible for the accuracy of the information