Opinion: A natural pandemic has been terrible. A synthetic one would be even worse
In 1988, as Russian scientist Nikolai Ustinov worked in the VECTOR lab, part of a Russian program to develop viral weapons, he accidentally infected himself with the Marburg virus, a deadly pathogen related to Ebola. He died weeks later. During his autopsy, a pathologist accidentally stuck himself with a needle and died as well.
At its peak, the VECTOR lab was thought to be able to produce two tons of Variola virus (the microbe that causes smallpox) per year. The lab was eventually transitioned into a research institute after the Cold War and recently helped develop the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V. It currently holds one of the world’s two official repositories of smallpox.
