Officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are set to dedicate the Galveston National Laboratory on Tuesday.
Reports in the national media continue to suggest, however faintly, that something has been put over on the people of Galveston.
Why would anyone want to have a secure laboratory dedicated to the study of deadly viruses in their backyard?
Why didn’t people in Galveston protest in the streets? People in Boston took legal action to stop plans for a biosafety laboratory there.
The suggestion — perhaps it’s an insinuation — is that there’s something wrong with the people of Galveston.
There are obvious advantages to having a $167 million research laboratory in town. At the very least, more than $1 billion of research will be done there in the next 20 years. The community has a chance to benefit economically.
All that research will attract scientists, technicians and other workers to the area, along with their families. The lab is likely to attract businesses that employ highly trained people to provide services to researchers.
Attracting folks like that to a community isn’t exactly a disaster.
But, beyond self-interest, there’s a much better argument to be made in support of the laboratory. That’s the argument that this kind of research simply should be done.
Put simply, the real danger is not that deadly pathogens will get out of the lab and land on the doorsteps of people who live in Galveston. It’s that these pathogens, which evolve in nature, will arrive on the doorsteps of mankind before researchers can study them and prepare a defense.
The best defense against these deadly organisms is knowledge.
If you really believe that, why would you believe knowledge is best pursued elsewhere rather than in your own backyard?
