It’s pretty clear in retrospect that a virus can come out of nowhere, circle the globe several times while mutating, and kill more than 7 million people as we approach the start of its sixth year. As we reached that collective awareness, we also learned that there were biosafety steps we could take to protect ourselves – among them, masking up and sampling the air. But what about keeping pathogens entirely away from populations they can harm?
What is Biosecurity?
Before we get further into what biosecurity is and how it works, let’s consider what it is not. Biosafety is not biosecurity – although it is likely what you envision when you think about being around deadly pathogens. Basically, biosafety is what you wear and the steps you take to remain safe in a biologically hostile environment. (Think working with dangerous pathogens in a lab or wearing a biohazard suit to go into a biologically compromised environment.) Biosecurity describes the steps we take to ensure that a pathogen does not escape a lab or enter a country in the first place. (Think keeping kryptonite well away from Superman.)
How Does Biosecurity Work?
Biosecurity works by anticipating problems before they occur and taking steps to ensure the worst case – or the actions of what is known as a “bad actor” – take place. With the state of technology today, the bad news is that it’s a monumental task. The good news – in fact, the very good news – is that there are organizations on top of this from the start. They have gathered resources and enacted standards to aid in actively policing potential avenues to a worst case scenario. (Think “eternal vigilence is the price of liberty” sort of activity.)
What Piqued My Interest?
Right at the start of Covid-19, before it was clear that this virus would cause the level of damage it has, I was contracted to work on a series of articles about biosecurity. At the time, it was all about preventing intentional damage; the sort of thing that kept me up at night. Now that Covid-19 has impacted the world, I sleep better knowing that many more people are losing sleep over the the need for robust biosecurity.
Enter Our December Raffle
Follow us to be entered into a drawing for a copy of Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. The raffle will take place on the 20th of December.