Health committee  It's a really good question. I'd be interested in the comments from David and company. I would say that you could have a pretty good assurance that most of those labs are well regulated, because most of the 4,000 are probably in universities and in private companies that are a

Health committee  Dr. Carrie, it would certainly help to alleviate my concerns. I would say that if there were clarity in the amendments, that level 2 versus level 3 and 4 pathogens were different, that level 2 pathogens didn't need security screening, and that the criminal penalties for level 2 w

Health committee  I thought, as usual, there was a lot of cogency in what David Butler-Jones said. He gave an actual scenario that did establish some benefit in regulating level 2s. What I would like to go back to in the back and forth with him is that it was almost that an implicit assumption was

Health committee  Thank you, and thanks for the invitation back. I'll also be brief, because I understand the primary purpose is to respond to questions. The first point I'd like to make is that I very strongly support the need for legislation on this matter of pathogen security. I actually think

Health committee  It's really important for committee members not to be trapped in metaphors, which is why I said what I said about nuclear. Nuclear security—real nuclear bombs, not dirty bombs, which are a little easier—are at one end of the spectrum. You can get nuclear security by controlling h

Health committee  Let me deal briefly with the coordination question, and then come back to the level 2 issue. On coordination, I heard the question that I think you asked, and I heard Frank Plummer's response from Tuesday. It sounded to me like Frank Plummer presented a pretty good case for a l

Health committee  Along the lines I just mentioned, sure.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  On the ethics, in my former life I used to run a bioethics centre, and one National Academy committee's recommendation had to do with this culture of responsibility. Let me just tell you a story. A guy called George Church is one of the world's pre-eminent producers of bits of D

Health committee  You won't be able to deal with it in this bill. That's why my second recommendation about the broader look on life sciences, next-generation threats, and the whole pieces of the puzzle, including the ethical aspects, which don't do well through legislation, or even regulation....

Health committee  I was going to say that those lists, especially the level 3 and level 4 lists.... Again I'm not a microbiologist, but they look pretty reasonable to me; they look comparable to the select agent rule. But the one thing I want to emphasize is that a good molecular biologist can tur

Health committee  Thank you very much, and good afternoon. My name is Peter Singer. I'm a professor of medicine at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health at the University Health Network and University of Toronto. I'm speaking as an individual. I became involved in biosecurity in 2003 wh